Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police Chief Constable vows to make rural crime a priority
Alexis Boon has been speaking to our reporter Freya Taylor after recently taking on the job
Last updated 29th Aug 2025
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police's Chief Constable is saying a policing "edge" is needed to tackle rural crime.
The newly appointed Chief Constable, Alexis Boon, tells us this is a main priority of his.
He says the force is investing more into a rural crime task force to help to tackle issues.
Mr Boon said: "75% of the county has beautiful, green, open countryside, but with that comes some quite serious crime and we're really focused on making sure we tackle that.
"Making sure that rural communities don't feel abandoned and feel that the police are there for them.
"We've actually investing more in our Country Watch Rural Crime Task Force to make sure we're proactively going after the criminals, as well as doing all the things we did previously.
"But I think there needs to be a real edge to our policing in rural communities."
Mr Boon was appointed into the Chief Constable role in August after previously working for the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.
During his time at the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, he led hundreds of Counter Terrorism and national security operations across the UK and internationally.
He told us his aims for the new role.
Mr Boon said: "The main priority is that communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight feel that the police are on their side.
"That we're visible, we're out there, we're communicating with communities and actually listening, but not just listening, we're acting upon what they've told us."