Wiltshire Police 'swears in' new intake of trainees
39 new officers are set to join the ranks
Wiltshire Police has welcomed 39 new officers into the force to begin their training.
It's the first intake of 2023, made up of 17 women and 22 men, and they'll now go through their initial training before joining stations across the county.
The recruits have sworn the oath of allegiance to the King during an 'attestation ceremony' at headquarters in Devizes.
That's been held in front of a magistrate, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills and Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Russell Holland.
The intake comes as one of Wiltshire's MPs, Salisbury Plain's Danny Kruger, has praised the number of new officers joining the force since 2019.
It's also against the backdrop of a survey earlier this month where Police Federation members in Wiltshire raised their concerns about pay and morale within the county, and nationally.
Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills told the new recruits that they should 'have a sense of pride to wear the uniform, to be a police officer and to serve their communities' following their attestation.
The trainees have also been thanked for 'stepping forward to a career in public service, for their commitment and future service'.
All police forces have been told to step up their vetting policies during recruitment, and make checks on existing officers, in the wake of high-profile crimes involving serving police staff.
The Government's Policing Minister Chris Philp MP says that will have been the case with the new Wiltshire recruits:
"All recruits have had face to face contact of some kind - whether it's an interview, medical, role play. There have been concerns about vetting, some valid concerns and we're taking a number of actions to ensure the vetting process is improved for new officers."
And Mr Philp says forces are working to root out anyone who bring disrepute to the job:
"The vetting rules are being substantially tightened up, that's going to be in place by next month. All police forces are reviewing the records of all of their serving officers, to see if there are any other problems buried away. Obviously we hope there aren't, but all of those records are being checked."