Chief Inspector Linda Davies is Winchester's new District Commander, 19 years after joining as a PCSO here. District crime is up 4% in a year.

Winchester has a new senior police officer. Chief Inspector Linda Davies took over as District Commander in August, and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary announced the appointment on 16 September (Hampshire Constabulary).

She replaces Chief Inspector Korine Bishop, who has moved to Learning and Development.

The appointment closes a loop. Chief Inspector Davies joined the force as a PCSO in Winchester in 2007, and she is coming back to run the district 19 years later.

Her career, as the force describes it

The constabulary sets out the route she took:

  • Joined as a PCSO in Winchester in 2007
  • Became a Police Constable in 2012, working Response and Patrol in Portsmouth
  • Served as a Custody Sergeant
  • Worked as Staff Officer to Assistant Chief Constable Paul Bartolomeo
  • Promoted to Inspector in Totton
  • Before Winchester, worked on performance and officer retention

In the force’s statement, Chief Inspector Davies said: “Returning to Winchester as District Commander feels very much like coming full circle. Nineteen years ago, I started my policing journey here, and I am genuinely over the moon to be back.”

She set out three priorities: “My priority is to ensure we continue to provide visible policing, tackle the issues that matter most to residents, and work closely with our communities to keep Winchester a safe place to live, work and visit.” She added that she looks forward to meeting residents, businesses and community groups across the district.

What she takes on, in numbers

The Winchester policing district is covered by six neighbourhood teams: Winchester North, Central and South in the city, and Winchester Rural West, Rural North and Rural East across the rest of the district.

We asked the Home Office street-level open data what was recorded across all six in the most recent month published, July 2026, and compared it with July 2025. The data lags about two months, so July 2026 is the latest available.

512 crimes and incidents were recorded across the district in July 2026, against 492 in July 2025. That is 20 more, a rise of about 4%.

The change is not spread evenly:

Bar chart comparing recorded crime in the six Winchester neighbourhood policing areas in July 2025 and July 2026: violence and sexual offences rose from 161 to 184, criminal damage and arson from 26 to 38, other theft from 38 to 47, while anti-social behaviour fell from 59 to 50, drugs from 44 to 36 and robbery from 7 to 2
Recorded crime across the six Winchester neighbourhood areas, July 2025 against July 2026. Source: police.uk open data.
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Rising:

  • Violence and sexual offences, 161 to 184. This is much the largest category, and it accounts for most of the overall increase on its own.
  • Criminal damage and arson, 26 to 38
  • Other theft, 38 to 47
  • Public order, 49 to 52

Falling:

  • Drugs, 44 to 36
  • Anti-social behaviour, 59 to 50
  • Robbery, 7 to 2
  • Bicycle theft, 4 to 1

Shoplifting was flat at 52 in both months. Burglary (14 to 13) and vehicle crime (13 to 12) barely moved.

Two things are worth saying plainly about these figures. The police.uk “all crime” total includes anti-social behaviour, which is an incident type rather than a recorded offence. And a single month is a small sample in a district this size, so a change of 20 is not a trend. What it does show is the shape of the work: violence and sexual offences make up more than a third of everything recorded here.

What it means for you

A change of District Commander is the point at which local priorities get reset, and this one has said publicly that she wants to hear from residents and community groups.

  • Your neighbourhood team is the route in, not the district commander’s office. Each of the six Winchester teams has its own page on the constabulary’s site listing its officers and its current priorities.
  • Report crime online or on 101, and always 999 in an emergency. Crimes reported to the force are what produce the figures above, so an unreported crime is invisible in them.
  • The promise to watch is “visible policing”. It is the first of the three priorities in her statement, and unlike the other two it is something residents can actually observe.

We will report on how the district’s figures move over her first year.

Sources