Hello Resident,

As part of national Anti-Social Behaviour Week this week, officers have continued to patrol heritage sites and areas of historical significance to deter anti-social behaviour from taking place.

Officers across Wiltshire Police are committed to working with partner agencies to preserve historical sites across Wiltshire, and prevent heritage crime from taking place.

Heritage crime encompasses a range of offences which take place involving listed buildings, scheduled monuments, conservation areas, and other heritage buildings and sites. Such sites of historical interest can be involved with incidents of anti-social behaviour including, but not limited to, graffiti, unlicensed music events, littering, off-road driving, and illegal metal detecting.

Wiltshire Rural Crime Team recently welcomed Mark Harrison, Head of Heritage Crime at Historic England, to provide heritage crime training to officers from teams across Wiltshire Police. As part of the training, officers learned more about:

• The law around ancient monuments and scheduled areas
• How the Historic England website can be utilised to map heritage sites in each area across the Force
• What additional steps to take at the scene of a heritage crime incident, to gather as much information as possible
• The risks of illegal metal detecting in Wiltshire

Please support the police and partner agencies to protect local heritage sites by reporting all instances of suspicious or anti-social activity at any historical or preservation sites by calling 101 or reporting it via the Wiltshire Police website. Always call 999 in an emergency or if a crime is in progress.