A LOCAL police officer has said that the police force is unable to allocate more resources to tackle the issue of crime in Melksham due to a lack of reports being made by the public.
At a Melksham Town Council meeting earlier this month, community policing coordinator, PC Charly Chilton, explained that whilst crimes such as criminal damage, assault and anti-social behaviour are being discussed openly on Facebook pages like ‘The Sham Shout Outs’ and ‘Spotted: Melksham’, she estimates that around 50% of these incidents are not being reported to the police.
With no record of these crimes, PC Chilton says that the police are unable to direct their resources to the town, instead focussing on areas where reports are being made.
“I am a Melksham local myself and I am fully aware of the issues we’ve had previously with vandalism,” said PC Chilton, “Criminal damage is unfortunately something that’s seen throughout the county and we would stress that we need people to report it.
“Whilst I quite often see on ‘Sham Shout Outs’ and ‘Spotted: Melksham’ that the police aren’t interested, or aren’t doing anything, actually I can probably say that 50% of the time, the things that I have seen online aren’t reported to the police.
“The way that community policing works – we have to direct our resources to where the issues are, and if we are not getting reports, that isn’t to say that those crimes aren’t happening, but I have to be able to justify why I am targeting my resources in a particular area where we are not getting reports, rather than an area where we are.”
Lack of evidence has also impacted the town council’s bid to tackle anti-social behaviour in the town. Last year, the council wanted to apply for a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), which would ban the consumption of alcohol in the town centre, but there were not enough reports to proceed.
PC Chilton said, “This is the problem we have, with regards to anti-social behaviour, drinking in public places and begging, we have got a whole host of anti-social behaviour powers available to us; the problem is that we need evidence.
“We have successfully got criminal behaviour orders on street drinkers within the Trowbridge area but that’s based on 40-50 reports and logs that are coming in. If we’re not getting the reports, we’ve got no power.
“It needs to be shown that there is a pattern of this behaviour – a small number of logs over a large period of time does not demonstrate enough of a pattern to get a court order.”
Discussing why reports aren’t being made, town councillors raised the issue of the length of time it can take for a call to be answered when calling 101 – the number to call in a non-emergency.
In response, PC Chilton said, “A major bug bear is the length of time to get through – but we have had a massive recruitment drive to recruit more call takers, which will hopefully reduce the time it takes to get through. We have also updated our website, as some people are calling 101 when other agencies would be better suited – for example calling 101 to report a lost dog, noise complaint; Wiltshire Council would be best for these issues. We also hope to introduce an online crime reporting system in the coming months.”
Mugging report
In the same week of the town council meeting, a post was made on Facebook’s ‘Spotted: Melksham’ page by someone claiming to have been mugged in the town on Sunday 10th June. However, the incident has yet to be reported to the police.
Police are appealing for the victim of this incident to contact them on 101 quoting reference 54180052958.
PC Chilton said, “We would always encourage anyone who has been a victim of crime to contact police – if it is an emergency and a crime is in progress please call 999. For all other matters, call 101. This helps us build a true picture of crime in an area and prioritise incidents effectively, while robustly investigating and identifying those responsible.
“While social media can often be a really important tool for us in appealing for witnesses to incidents, or spreading important crime prevention messages, it should not be used to report crime.”
