A drive towards more visible policing in the community is having a positive impact on reducing crime, according to the police inspector for Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon, Chris Chammings.

Insp Chammings, who joined the force in 1991, took over the role of overseeing the area from Lisette Harvey in March last year, coming in from Wiltshire Police Headquarters in Devizes.

Since arriving, he has introduced a number of ideas to increase the visibility of the Neighbourhood Policing Teams.

They include the regular use of bikes to get around and doing administration work in public, thanks to 3G and Wi-Fi enabled laptops.

The initiatives have helped reduce crime figures compared with last year.

Anti-social behaviour is down by 15.8 per cent, domestic burglaries down by 34.1 per cent and vehicle crime has dropped by 33 per cent.

He said: “One of my core beliefs is being visible and accessible to the community and that was why I set my policing teams the challenge, in May, of covering more miles on bicycles than they do in cars.

“It went really well and the staff loved it, as it meant they could speak to more people out and about and respond to incidents more quickly than if they were walking.

“The computers then came on the back of that, around July, when I got four laptops with 3G connectivity.

“That allowed officers to get out of the office and do their admin work in the community.

“The extra visibility gives people more reassurance and officers have used places like County Hall and the new community room at Tesco to work from. I have even used the bench in the park.”

Insp Chammings said his team would be trialling handheld Smartphone devices in the New Year, which would also enable officers to spend less time in the office and more out on their patches.

The Trowbridge NPT will also be able to increase its visibility in the winter months, with a new pop-up police station.

It was bought using a grant of £1,750 from Trowbridge Area Board.

Insp Chammings added: “We are part of delivering a strong community in Trowbridge and the feedback we have received from residents has been very positive.

“The aim next year is to carry on consolidating our increased visibility in the town and the challenge is to work on reducing the high perception of crime, as Trowbridge is a safe place to live.”