Estates

Introduction

Work has been going on over many months to determine which police buildings we need - and which we can manage without.

At the heart of the detailed discussions has been the need to ensure that our Community Policing Teams (CPTs) have the right presence in the right locations.

Wiltshire Police has set out its operational policing needs, so I am now in a position to share with you my Estates Strategy for the next five years and beyond.

The aim is to see the cost of running the Force's HQ and other buildings reduced by 20 per cent by 2021. But it is important to say that this project is driven by efficiency rather than austerity.

We need to recognise that doing things the way we have always done them is not efficient or effective. This is about being more efficient with the public's money.

The strategy will involve a major investment at several key locations to provide buildings fit for 21st Century policing.

Mobile, flexible, visible and accessible

Embracing and investing in technology is an important part of this estates strategy. Moving away from desks with desktop PCs at fixed locations to personal issue laptops, tablets and smartphones enables officers and staff to work more flexibly and visibly in communities.

It also helps to ensure that public funds are spent on frontline policing rather than unnecessary and sometimes old and costly buildings.

We now have the technology to allow officers and staff to sit in public spaces and be more visible and accessible. We are more responsive, more mobile, more visible, and easier to engage with. Our adage is 'work is what you do, not the place where you go'.

We will share buildings wherever we can with our public service partners, and encourage our frontline colleagues to do their office work where they can meet the public.

Every pound we save on running our estate is a pound we will not have to save from policing.