Wiltshire communities urged to be aware of stalking signs
Wiltshire Police say we should report all cases of stalking
Wiltshire Police are urging us to be aware of the signs we, or someone we know, might be being stalked.
The force dealt with 475 cases of stalking in 2023, and say they want to improve their identification of offences.
Detective Chief Superintendent Liz Coles, said stalking crimes will be dealt with 'robustly'.
The Head of Crime, Justice and Vulnerability said: "It's such a serious crime, we need to manage and understand the importance of whether it's a stalking crime, whether it's harassment, whether there are any other crimes that could be included within some of those areas."
DCI Coles says there are a number of factors they will use to define a stalking crime.
"There's four key areas we look at," she said, adding: "They are fixation is that individual fixated on somebody. Is that behaviour obsessive, is it unwanted and is it repeated so we look for more than one occasion that any of those things have happened and that's what we will constitute as stalking offence."
DCI Coles insisted that victims of stalking would be supported by the organisation.
"We have a number of safeguarding sort of options available to us," she explained. "It depends on that person's specific circumstances, but we would always look at the risk and make sure we understand the risk to that individual and then we would put in appropriate safeguarding measures to ensure we manage that risk.
"While supporting the individual, it's very hard for that victim of that stalking offence, so we do everything we can to make them feel safe."
Community awareness can aid reporting
We're urged to report cases of stalking to the police and they want communities to be aware of the signs too, saying victims don't always recognise what's happening.
"It may be something that other people recognise and identify that offence, through friends or family members, then they can then support and advise them to report it to us," DCI Coles said.
She added stalking can be in the context of domestic abuse, where the perpetrator and victim had a close relationship. Wiltshire domestic abuse charity, FearFree, has told us rejection is one of the leading causes of stalking offences.
But Wiltshire Police say that it's always born from a romantic relationship.
"It could be a family relationship, but it could also be a close acquaintance or a colleague or somebody at school.
"Sometimes it can be a stranger, that's probably more uncommon, but often it could be somebody that perhaps was a friend and that behaviour has then started to change."