Melksham’s new police sergeant sets out her priorities for the town

THERE’S a new police sergeant in town and her plans include addressing anti-social behaviour, improving community connections, working closely with schools, and celebrating Melksham’s success.

Gemma Rutter has been in post for around four weeks, as the new police sergeant in Melksham Community Policing Team covering Melksham, Bradford-on-Avon and the villages in between.

With around 17 years of experience in the force, Gemma has worked all over the county starting in the response team in Devizes dealing with domestic incidences, then Trowbridge in the response team, and progressing into CID for five years doing investigative work, where she achieved ‘good’ convictions for a stabbing in Trowbridge, and convicted a rapist to over eight years in jail as well as dealing with other varied jobs including suspicious deaths and robberies.

Gemma said, “Following my time in CID, I wanted to go back into response work because that’s my bread and butter. My heart has always been in front line and I think it’s really important. Other departments can be very back office. My passion is going out and seeing people, meeting people and having interactions with them rather than being at the desk. Going back into response worked out perfectly and I came back to Trowbridge where I had many great memories of older times.

“I was in charge of my own response team for about a year and a half and then I did a stint as acting inspector where I covered the county for four months. I dealt with incidences that were varied and there were a lot of attempted murders.

“I then went into the neighbourhood team; I didn’t want to stay in response because that’s very reactive and I wanted a more proactive role; to start looking at working with more agencies and long-term problem-solving and that’s where I am now.”

Sharing her plans of what she would like to focus on in Melksham, Gemma said, “There are a couple of key areas for Melksham that I would like to focus on but they also spread to other towns. I want to tackle little pockets of anti-social behaviour (ASB), or perceived ASB, especially as we go into Summer. I am aware that Melksham has a bit of a reputation for youth related ASB. I want that to go, I don’t want to hear people being afraid to go to the park at certain times. I want to find out if it’s happening, let’s tackle it. If it isn’t happening, let’s get that message out so people do feel safe and feel like they can use it. We have to be transparent nowadays with results and it’s important we spread that message with the findings and not just roll into the next issue. It’s important we start closing issues down.

“There’s so much open to us in-terms of partnerships. I think we should work collaboratively with the NHS, fire brigade so we are all working together. Let’s have that approach we are not just carrying that burden alone. If everyone takes responsibility for it, we can fix the problem sooner.

“I’d really like us to get into schools. PCSOs do fantastic work in schools, I didn’t even know they had so much presences in schools, and we need to get that message out.

“We need to make sure that the serious crimes happening in Bath, Swindon and Devizes don’t happen here. We need to start putting in some serious preventative work in and looking at what the contents of our school talks and presentations are, who are we working with to get that better message across to kids.”

Asking for Melksham’s support, Gemma said, “From the town, I need an open mindset. It’s easy for there to be negative perceptions. Give agencies a chance. We are not always going to get it right and that’s really important to recognise, we can’t always be in someone’s street. Join in, that’s really important. When the ASB surveys go out, make sure you fill them out. Engage in drop-in centres, share content on Facebook. I have a real passion for communities but I think that for so long people have gone to blame other areas of society for what’s going on on their doorstep and if we all pull together and work as one, we can address the problems.

“Let’s keep the momentum and community spirit going from Coronation weekend and celebrate our successes.”

Above: Police sergeant Gemma Rutter