Wiltshire’s Chief Constable has personally assured women worried about any police officer’s identity that they can now film the officer, speak to the police control room on his radio and call for other officers to attend to confirm that he is legitimate.

Kier Pritchard made the pledge in a live Facebook Q&A session aimed at reassuring women about their safety in the wake of the Sarah Everard tragedy.

The Chief was asked if women are allowed to film on their phones any officer if they feared for their safety. He replied: “Absolutely, of course you can, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you being able to demonstrate that you are recording things.”

All officers will now offer a verification check to add extra reassurance. “They will radio into the control room, put their radio on speaker and you will be able to listen to confirmation from our control room operators that the person you are speaking to is an on-duty officer. If you want to record that interaction, please do so.”

Another woman asked: if stopped by a police officer in an unmarked car, even if they confirm that they are genuine, can you refuse to get into the car?

The Chief replied: “The last thing I want you to do is to put yourself in a position where you feel threatened, vulnerable or intimidated.

“So you can ask to see their warrant card, ask to speak to the control room on their radio and I have no problem whatsoever with you requiring an officer to ask for an additional resource (another officer).

“I have no problem at all with you saying ‘I am looking for confirmation and I want to make sure that I am completely safe’ and for you to speak to the control room and ask for an additional resource to come and confirm the identity of this individual – and officers will be there, they understand.”

In response to a woman asking for more officers to be seen when people are having nights out at restaurants, pubs and night clubs, the Chief Constable said: “You will see more uniformed officers on the beat.”

He added: “We are trying to make sure that we have visible officers in uniform and also plain clothes officers present for the night time economy.

“The idea of this is that officers will be looking for suspicious behaviour, to focus towards those acting suspiciously, to be there so that people can go about enjoying their evenings in the safety of knowing that there are officers around.”

The Chief Constable stressed how important it was to him that the bond of trust between the Wiltshire Force and the public is not broken.

He said: “My officers are really dedicated professionals and I am really proud of them. They are doing a very difficult job to keep policing turning so that you can be safe and protected. They are there to protect you, please keep that in mind and let’s not allow the actions of a very small minority to challenge that relationship that we have.

"We need to make sure that you have confidence in us and that we do everything we can to get rid of individuals and separate from our organisation those whose values have fallen below the high standards that I expect."

“The standards of professionalism need to be really, really high and if we fall anywhere below that then I need to know about it. If we have let you down you can let me know.”