Nineteen year-old Holly Thompson is the final recruit for Tidworth’s Neighbourhood Police Team (NPT) which officially launches on April 24th 2006.

Tidworth Community Police Officer, Holly Thompson

Holly joins four other community police officers, who will patrol the Tidworth area in a trial project, which police hope will be provide the community with renewed confidence by seeing police back on the beat.

Sgt Nigel Porter, Station Commander for Tidworth Police Station said: “Our community police officers have already been out and about and the feedback from people has been extremely positive - many expressing their happiness with the renewed beat presence”.

NPT is part of a government scheme aimed at getting police out of their offices and back on the streets.  By April 2008 there could be 99 such teams across Wiltshire and Swindon. The Tidworth team will work closely with the community and will deal with a wide range of problems, including anti-social behaviour and quality of life issues.

Holly Thompson joined the team mid-March, she said: “I think my age may be an advantage, the response from the kids has been great, having already visited two schools.”

The team consists of 2 Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) and 2 Special Constables (SC) with 1 uniformed policeman. The long-term intention is to provide two other teams for Ludgershall and the Collingbournes.