Chief police officers have answered tough questions about violent crime in Slough and diversity within the force.

Thames Valley Police (TVP) is responsible for tackling crime in Slough, which is one of the most dangerous towns in Berkshire.

Over the last year, there was one homicide in Slough and 5,820 violent crimes 'against the person' recorded - a rate of 36.56 per 1,000 residents. 

In total there were more than 15,000 crimes recorded, covering a wide range of offences from sexual offences to stealing and criminal damage.

That's a rate of 97.62 per 1,000 in the population, with the figures taken from TVPs own statistics from October 2023 to September 2024.

Each year, top police officers deliver a report to councils on policing activities and are scrutinised by councillors.

The officers were recently questioned at a Slough Borough Council meeting.

Addressing police, councillor Fiza Matloob (Labour, Baylis & Salt Hill) said: "I think you guys do a fantastic job, there's a lot of respect for you guys in Slough.

"Obviously when residents experience violent crime their attitude changes, it's hard to explain to them, especially with the lack of resources, what you guys do.

"I think in Slough you guys have amazing officers and they are doing some really good work with limited resources.

Councillor Fiza Matloob (Labour, Baylis & Salt Hill).Councillor Fiza Matloob (Labour, Baylis & Salt Hill). (Image: Slough Labour)

"Slough comes out really bad in regards to violent crime, according to the crime rate, it's one of if not the most dangerous town in Berkshire.

"Is there a specific plan to focus on this area, what's the criteria for the allocation of resources?"

Steve Raffield, the local command unit (LCU) commander for Berkshire East replied: "What we try to do is apply an intelligent approach to this, and understand where our violent crime hotspots are, so that we can be more visible in those areas.

"We are able to identify those areas which have got the higher violent crime rate, and direct our officers into those areas at the times when they are likely to have the most impact."

He went on to explain that officers use a 'Hotspot' policing app to identify where their presence is needed, and log the amount of times they visit an area to build intelligence.

Jason Hogg, the chief constable, explained: "Workloads are not equal. Slough and Milton Keynes for example are the highest workloads in the force for our officers.

"If there is a particularly high demand in Slough, we can put more officers into Slough."

He added that officers are more 'agile' than before, and can be brought into an area quickly to deal with a problem, and then out again once the situation is settled.

Officers have identified crime hotspots along the two main roads in Chalvey, Langley and Farnham Road.

Meanwhile, Cllr Waqas Sabah (Farnham, Slough Independent Group) noted that 48 per cent of new recruits are women, and asked how many are from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background.

Mr Hogg replied: "16 per cent. I think we've been on a journey here.

"I've been very clear that if we want to build the trust and confidence of all our communities, we need to be representative.

"It's the principle that the police are the people and the people are the police.

"If you look back over the last 20 years, only six per cent were BAME."

The exchanges took place at a corporate improvement scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, October 29.