PCC stresses need for "two-way" communication as new digital tools launched
Philip Wilkinson wants better communication between the Police and the public
Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Philip Wilkinson, says he's desperate to open a two-way communication channel between the Police Force and the Public.
He's launched two new digital tools, Your Area and Street Safe, to improve communication between the Force and the people of Wiltshire.
Your Area allows us to see where crimes are happening, identify hotspots and find out which officers are on the beat where we live, as well as how to contact them.
Street Safe allows the public to share information which the PCC says will help focus "scarce" police resources.
It's all part of the first priority in his Police and Crime Plan, which is to communicate better with the public and provide them the service they want.
"Everything is designed to give more information and it is designed to make it easier for the public to feed information to us," Mr Wilkinson said.
While the county has the lowest rate of crime per person in the country, the PCC insists the Force "can do better".
"The more information we've got, the better we can target our resources," He said. "Yes, we're doing a pretty good job, but we can do better with the public's help. The public help comes in the form of telling us what your problems are and giving us the intelligence.
"With the intelligence, we can better target our scarce resources, so that will help us be more effective to make the county safer."
Mr Wilkinson added that he hopes the better flow of communication helps him with one his main challenges.
"My challenge in many ways is to make the people of Wiltshire feel safer not just to be safer. There is that disconnect between reality and perception, and that disconnect is trust and confidence. It's how do we build trust and confidence and better communication will allow us to do that," he said.
The PCC stressed the importance of people being aware of the information that is now out there.
"I need people to be aware and to bother to look rather than just saying 'we don't know what's going on, Police are useless'.
"We are really trying not to be useless. That does require a little bit of participation and that participation is a two-way process."