Recently the Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police, Catherine Roper, who was hand-picked by the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson, has had her contract extended until 2030. Catherine Roper came from the Metropolitan Police, a force with a very well-known poor reputation. I questioned the PCC about his choosing an officer from the Met at a council meeting at the time, but he didn’t even have the courtesy to acknowledge my question, let alone answer it.
This extension of the contract for Catherine Roper, comes at a time that is seeing a very significant increase in crimes across the county from 50,066 in 2024 to 52,005 in 2025 (almost back to 2023 levels), and her failure to tackle violent crime, in particular knife crime.
So instead of sacking her for this failure, our PCC is rewarding her with another 4 years of contract! Public perception in the police is at an all-time low, and crime is rising, so how can our PCC think it is right to extend the contract of a Chief Constable, that has failed so badly in keeping crime in the county under control?
I have been recording the crime data published on the police.uk website since 2021 and it shows what the top crimes that the police should have been targeting from the outset, and it was clear that Violence and sexual offences always were and remain the top of list for the police to tackle, with Anti-Social behaviour a distant second. So why is it now that this is only being targeted, and only now after a teenager has tragically lost his life? It is unconscionable that both Catherine Roper and Philip Wilkinson can remain in their jobs, after such an abject failure!
