Monthly column by Supt Rob Mitchell:

Another Isle of Wight Festival has taken place and I’m pleased to see it passed without significant concerns, regarding crime or public safety — both during and after the event.

We always have to prepare for any potential threat to the safety of people, in large crowded spaces, which is why the festival, like other similar events, will have Public Order and Public Safety (POPS) commanders working with organisers, to plan for and anticipate any threats or risk to the public.

The festival always marks the beginning of our busy summer period for policing, where demand goes up through much-welcome tourism and, our existing officers and staff adapt their duties to match demand and keep visitors and Islanders safe.

Many will be working long 12-hour shifts and, having their duties changed at short notice to deliver our resources where needed.

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Despite this, our teams remain positive and committed to doing the best they can, as many live on the Island and have a real passion for protecting its reputation, as a safe place to live and visit.

Although demand for service has increased, our response times to emergency and, non-emergency calls, remain favourable, compared to mainland areas in the constabulary.

Recorded crime has fallen another 3.5 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Unfortunately, anti-social behaviour (ASB) is increasing, as one would expect in the summer, with factors such as longer and lighter evenings, more events to attend and more opportunities for some to drink to excess in public, having an impact.

ASB remains one of our priorities on the Island, along with domestic abuse, drug-related crimes, road-related crimes and shoplifting.

Please, continue to report these incidents, so our police teams know where the hotspots are and can plan responses to tackle the problems.

Recently, one of my inspectors discussed his priority setting and problem solving with me. He said some correspondents had complained his team were focused on driving offences and that these were "not an issue".

However, he also pointed out respondents to our ongoing ‘Let’s Talk’ public surveys, have highlighted driving offences are a concern to Islanders.

We encourage you to get involved and sign up to Let’s Talk, so you can tell us what’s important to you.

If we don’t know it’s broken, then we can’t fix it.

Once signed up, you can then get updates on what the teams are doing about the issues that have been raised in your area.