Trowbridge police sergeant Jim Suter has revealed that for the first time in his 26-year career there was not a single crime reported in the town over a 24-hour period this week.

Sgt Suter, who started working in Trowbridge in 1988, said that from 6.30am on Monday to 6.30am on Tuesday nobody reported a burglary, mugging, anti-social behaviour, criminal damage or any other crimes.

While he believes it may never happen again for the rest of his career, the area beat sergeant for Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon and the surrounding villages is confident the work his officers are doing is making a difference.

He highlighted Trowbridge Neighbourhood Police Team’s increased use of bikes to increase their visibility on patch, while officers are now doing admin work in public thanks to 3G and wi-fi enabled laptops.

Sgt Suter said: “It is not anything I have ever seen before in my time covering Trowbridge.

"To not have any reported crime at all is incredibly unusual and it is obviously a bit of an anomaly.

“We are seeing a reduction in crime in the town anyway, but I was surprised to see absolutely nothing reported for 24 hours.

"If it was just one thing that I could put my finger on then I would replicate it, but it’s not as easy as that.

“There are things we are doing that are having an impact, though, and our emphasis on being out and about in the town and visible as much as we can has certainly had a positive impact.

“We are also better at targeting repeat offenders as it is true to say that there’s only a small number of individuals responsible for the large majority of crime in Trowbridge.”