Wiltshire's £1m mission to tackle crime as residents 'afraid to go out'

The new security officers want to put a stop to petty crime and threatening behavior because some residents are “afraid to go out at night.”

Wiltshire Police have received £1 million from the Government to deploy in the areas most affected by crime data.

Some residents said recent stabbings and other incidents have left them afraid to go outside in the dark.

“Some people are really afraid to come out,” said Rev. Patrick Webb, whose congregation is in the Park South district of Swindon.

The Community Safety Wardens will be deployed alongside additional police officers at crime hotspots in Swindon, Salisbury, Trowbridge and Devizes.

Bradley Ellis, who patrolled the Park South property, said he tried to let all local people and businesses know they were there to help.

“If anything happens, even if it’s shoplifting, we can intervene.

“If we need to arrest them … we can also get involved and call the police,” he added.

Michael and Tessa Crayford, residents of Park South for 40 years, now stay indoors at night.

“When it gets dark, we can't get out at all. We used to be able to, but we can't anymore,” said Mrs. Crayford.

She added: “We've seen stabbings and all sorts of things here. It's scary.”

“We have a large proportion of elderly people here and I can well imagine that they feel very threatened,” says local shop owner Danny Hirani.

He said antisocial behaviour must be addressed “from both sides” and the “root cause” must also be investigated.

Revd Webb, vicar of St John the Baptist and St Andrew, is helping as best he can by setting up new family and youth groups, but he said there is a lot of work to be done.

“Almost every Sunday morning I have to go out and clean up the beer bottles, broken glass, sometimes syringes and sometimes other stuff,” he said.

He explained that during Sunday services there were often people standing outside “screaming and shouting,” even at events such as funerals.

“It's just not appropriate. Some people are really afraid to come out and we can't tolerate that,” he said.

“The community needs to get involved and say, 'We want a place where we can raise our children, where we can go to the store alone without having to worry about what's going on around us.'

“We want to build a community here and live together in peace,” he added.

Mr Ellis said he took on the task to make his city a better place.

“This could put one of you or your family at risk in the future,” he added.

Philip Wilkinson, Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “We know where the hotspots are, so we can ensure that the money we invest in tackling anti-social behaviour in those areas goes where we can achieve the highest priorities.”

He essentially loaned Swindon Borough Council the funds for the wardens.

City Councilman Jim Grant said the authority would “scrape together money.”

“Ideally, we want to lobby the new government to ensure that measures to combat anti-social behaviour are more adequately funded… because anti-social behaviour ultimately leads to more serious crime.”