As we move into another challenging year for the police service, I am incredibly grateful to all our officers, staff and volunteers who enable our force to keep going, and to our frontline colleagues who continue to be out responding to incidents, working at the heart of our community and keeping the public of Wiltshire safe.

I believe, and I am sure many of my colleagues will agree that being a police officer is one of the most rewarding jobs anyone can do.

This week is the first national Neighbourhood Policing Week of Action, a chance for us to recognise and celebrate the work of our neighbourhood policing teams and the impact they have in our communities and managing the demand placed upon policing.

Neighbourhood teams are part of our community Policing teams here in Wiltshire.

They are the officers, PCSOs and volunteers you will see most working out in your communities.

They work together with partners to address local issues, solve problems that matter to our communities, prevent crime and protect those most vulnerable.

For me, some of my happiest memories from my time in policing are when I was a police constable working out in the community, and look forward to joining the team in Chippenham out on patrol this week.

The neighbourhood team roles haven’t always been recognised for the specialism that they are.

But I am really pleased to see that this is changing and nationally neighbourhood teams are starting to get the recognition they deserve.

We have certainly seen several great local examples of our neighbourhood team’s hard work in the news recently, including the discovery of £2 million worth of cannabis plants in Westbury, the Op Dasher and Op Sleigh anti-social behaviour operations during the Christmas period and the joint operation to tackle county lines between London and Swindon.

Whatever the next 12 months holds for us all, Wiltshire Police will continue to be there or our communities.

As part of this I’d like to publicly thank our neighbourhood teams working across our county for their dedication and commitment and tell them just how much we appreciate the hard work they carry out every single day.