Wiltshire Scouts Design A Police Force with £200M

Thursday, 16 October 2025 05:55

If you had a budget of £200 million, how would you design your own police force?

That's the question posed to almost a hundred Scouts from across Wiltshire who took part in an interactive day as part of the Wiltshire Police Scout Challenge Badge.

On Sunday, October 12th, troops gathered at Wiltshire Police Headquarters in Devizes to participate in activities aimed to test the Scouts' problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership skills, while providing valuable insights into the critical role police officers and staff play in keeping the community safe. It also gave Wiltshire Police the opportunity to understand the concerns of the young people attending and how to provide an even better service to them.

Chief Constable Catherine Roper, the Child and Young People National Police Chiefs' Council lead, said: “We are thrilled to host Wiltshire Scouts for the second year running.

"Youth organisations like Scouts embody everything we value in policing: leadership, resilience, and a commitment to helping others.

“Given policing’s need to build trust and confidence, events like this are critical to allowing young people to see a friendly face of policing and have a good dose of fun. We’re not just teaching young people about the important role the police play in keeping our communities safe, but also empowering them to make choices that benefit the future of their communities and themselves."

The Scouts faced a range of challenging activities aimed at giving them a realistic view of police work:

Design Your Own Police Force: In Teams, they created a vision, priorities, and structure for a police force, working within a real-world budget scenario.
Solve a Crime: Scouts become investigators in an immersive training exercise, gathering clues and evidence to solve a simulated crime.
Uniform Policing Challenge: Participants got a hands-on experience with police protective equipment and tactics.

Over lunch, Scouts explored a Policing Marketplace, where they met officers and staff from various departments.

This included:

Crime scene investigation team
Digital Investigations and Intelligence Unit
Police Cadets
Control room (101/999 call operators)
Communications and media team
Personal safety

The Scouts will be presented with their Wiltshire Police Scout Challenge Badges in the coming weeks. This badge not only symbolises the skills they’ve developed but also reinforces the core values of public service and teamwork.

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