Goodbye to Crimestoppers as we know it
The Crimestoppers report in this edition of the Rabbiter is the last one we can publish. This is due to the retirement at the end of March of PC Simon Wright after 27 years in the Hampshire Constabulary. Simon has been a Basingstoke resident for some 30 years and of Hatch Warren for twenty.
Simon Wright has been the Crimestoppers Co-ordinator across a vast swathe of southern England since the year 2000. As well as being totally responsible for all activities in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, he has also been overseeing Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Channel Islands and Isles of Scilly together with the co-ordinators in Surrey, Sussex and Kent. As part of this demanding role he has written monthly reports that are sent to 120 publications.
His position as the Crimestoppers Co-ordinator actually came to an end last Easter and he was transferred to other Police duties in Winchester due to the extensive budget cuts across the Police service. In fact over 800 officers have left the Hampshire force since the financial cuts began and have not been replaced. However Simon has carried on unofficially overseeing Crimestoppers and voluntarily writing the monthly updates and articles in his spare time, however he recognises that once he retires from the Police Force he cannot continue in this vein.
Crimestoppers as an entity continues, where the public can give information about crime anonymously either by phone or online. The huge response to Simon’s articles has made Hampshire Crimestoppers one of the most successful regions in the country, both with the number of calls made to Crimestoppers and the results achieved with that information.
Simon can look back on his Police career with pride in his achievements. Early on he was heavily involved with the Policing of the construction of the Newbury bypass and all its problems with public protesters who featured regularly on television news. The High Sheriff of Berkshire awarded Simon a Shrievalty commendation certificate in recognition of his contribution to policing the event. The High Sheriff of Isle of Wight nominated him to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party as thanks for his Crimestoppers work on the island and the current Home Secretary, Teresa May, presented h
im with a certificate for his outstanding work with Crimestoppers.
Local personalities have also been involved in his work; the late Shaw Taylor, for many years the presenter on TV of Police Five who lived on the IoW, Dr Hilary Jones and Alan Titchmarsh have supported his efforts to get the public to report suspects in a completely anonymous way that has helped the law have an impact on many miscreants.
What does the future hold for this law supporting figure? ‘A rest and some serious gardening before embarking on a new yet-tobe-discovered project’.
