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A DISGRUNTLED south Wiltshire public is beginning to lose faith in local policing.

Reorganisation, a Devizes-based centralised control room, the downgrading of stations and the closure of enquiry offices have combined to create frustration among people trying to report crimes, disturbances and acts of vandalism.

Now that frustration had turned to despair and - in some cases anger - among residents who feel they are being let down by a Wiltshire police service that for years previously they had respected and admired.

Last week the Journal's sister paper - The Avon Advertiser - carried a story of the agonising amount of time an Amesbury man spent trying to contact police on the main call handling 0845 408 700 number and afterwards at the town's police station.

His experience struck a chord with readers across the city and district and the Salisbury Newspapers' newsdesk was inundated with calls from people reporting similar - and frequently more worrying - dealings with the county's constabulary, whose motto is First and Best.

A litany of complaints - a selection of which you can read by turning to page 2 - ranged from endless waits on the phone and officers failure to attend incidents to a feeling among callers that the information they are passing on is not being taken seriously. One resident complained that the police had even lost a written statement he made to them.

And it's not only householders, who are voicing concern.

Businesses, too, are angry at the length of time it takes to contact the police by phone to report crimes and acts of antisocial behaviour.

So much so that at a meeting of Salisbury City Centre Management last Thursday, they agreed to put their concerns in writing to Chief Constable of Wiltshire, Martin Richards and Salisbury MP Robert Key. Most people, including local businesses, blame the system and not police officers for the problem.

Some claim that officers on the beat have actually sympathised with their concerns, expressed their own reservations about the system within which they have to work, and advised them to make a complaint.

Replying to the criticism this week Wiltshire's Assistant Chief Constable Andy Marsh, said: "Wiltshire police receives more than 30,000 calls every month and the vast majority of these are dealt with satisfactorily.

However, it is clear that on a small number of occasions the service we have provided has not met the high standards we set for ourselves and that our customers expect of us - and I am sorry for this.

"Our contact centre is one of the first points of contact with the police for many people and we recognise the importance of getting it right every single time.

"We have been working hard on the phone service we provide and since the beginning of the year the number of calls answered within our target time has risen from 52 per cent to 70 per cent.

"We also regularly survey victims of crime to see if they were satisfied with our performance and identify areas in which we can improve the service."

"In the most recent quarter 91 per cent of people were satisfied with the ease of contacting us and this is the highest it has been for two years.

"When we receive calls we have to prioritise them based on urgency and because we only have limited resources to work with.

This means that, in some cases, response officers are unable to deal with something immediately or may get diverted en route.

"To help deal with community policing and low-level crimes such as antisocial behaviour we have recently introduced Neighbourhood policing teams.

"These provide local points of contact for neighbourhoods and through them the quality of local policing is improving significantly.

"Wiltshire police is always looking to improve across the board and contact management is one of the Force's priorities.

"Feedback is always welcome as it allows us to respond to it and helps us improve our services - and I would like to thank the Journal for bringing this to our attention."

9:24am Thursday 23rd August 2007

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