Media office - for media and press only

If you're a member of the public and need to report a crime or have a general query please use our public contact us page as the Media Office can't take reports of crime or help with general enquiries. If it is an emergency please dial 999. 

If you're a journalist, the team will be happy to help you with any media enquiries that have a policing purpose, or concern incidents that are being responded to or investigated by the force. The more information you provide, the better equipped the Media Office will be to assist with your enquiry.

For journalists only:

• phone: 01865 504657
• email: [email protected]

Our core office hours are:

• Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm,  
• Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 5pm

The Media Office is not contactable to journalists out of office hours. Any urgent messages required out of office hours will be published on the force’s communications channels, such as our website or social media accounts

Documentary requests

We receive many requests for filming and providing facilities relating to both operational and non-operational matters. If you have a request not related to these areas, please complete our documentary request form.

This service is only available to accredited journalists or media organisations that we recognise and provide a service to. If you have any questions, or your filming request is urgent, please contact us in the first instance.

Please note, there are fees and charges for documentary filming.

Media Office

• James Williams – Interim Media Manager
• Gareth Ford-Lloyd – Interim Senior Media Officer
• Kieren Bushnell – Media Officer
• Lottie Walker - Media Officer
• Jack Duggan - Media Officer
• Ashley Penfold - Media Officer
• Hinna Aamani - Media Officer

The Media Office will be happy to help you with any media enquiries that have a policing purpose or any enquiries about incidents that we are responding to or investigating.

We deal with more than 7,000 media enquiries a year so our phone lines are extremely busy. 

The team manages the communications for a number of ongoing operational incidents and investigations, including murders, sexual offences and declared major incidents, so we have to respond to media enquiries in order of priority.

Classification of media enquiries

The team has a classification system for media enquiries, so they are prioritised by the seriousness of the crime and threat, risk and harm to the public.

This approach will help to better manage the expectations of the media so they can plan their workload.

• Priority 1 response time: we'll aim to answer these enquiries within six office hours.
• Priority 2 response time: we'll aim to answer these enquiries within 24 office hours.
• Priority 3 response time: we'll aim to answer these enquiries within 48 office hours.

Enquiries that fall outside these priority categories, such as low level crime or requests for features, we'll aim to respond to within seven days.

Please note that all of these response times are subject to the agreement from the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO).

Some further guidance on media enquiries

• Please be aware that we require a road name, town/village name and a time and date to find details of incidents on our systems.
• We'll provide custody photos of defendants who receive an immediate custodial sentence. To request a custody photo you must provide the Media Office with the defendant's: 
  • • name
    • age or date of birth
    • address
    • details of the offence(s) 
    • sentence
• There might be times when we won't provide custody photos of defendants, for example:
• • • We won't provide custody photos of defendants who receive suspended custodial sentences.
    • We won't  provide custody photos of defendants who receive hospital orders.
    • If there are safeguarding issues that will arise from the release and/or publication of custody photos, then we won't provide custody photos of these defendants. However, we will always explain our decision to journalists when this is the case.
    • Sometimes we don’t have custody photos for defendants if they've been voluntarily interviewed or dealt with by way of a summons or postal requisition.
    • All custody photos have to be approved by the officer in the case before publishing or sharing with the media, so we may not be able to provide the photos immediately.
• We don’t answer enquiries about road traffic collisions unless the enquiry is about a press release we have published or the road traffic collision is causing significant traffic issues. Instead, our Joint Roads Policing Unit and control rooms will post messages on social media to inform the public about collisions that are causing disruption to traffic. 
• Hundreds of Thames Valley Police officers and staff communicate with the public on social media. We encourage the public and media to engage in a dialogue on social media. Therefore, if you have a question about a TVP post on social media, in the first instance please reply directly to that post.
• Our policy is not to confirm or deny identities of suspects or those arrested. We only confirm identities of those who have been charged.
• In general, the Media Office will only confirm the identity of murder victims when they have been formally identified.
• To answer enquiries about complaints, the Media Office requires the following details: Complainant’s name, date the complainant made the complaint to the force, how the complainant made the complaint to the force (eg over the phone, online, at a police station), details of the complaint, compliant reference number (if known).

Media policies

We have adopted the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP), which is designed to assist those working in police forces who engage with the media.

We also follow the policies within our service level agreement (see download below), which is designed to provide Thames Valley Police staff and officers with a clear framework to enable open, transparent and consistent interaction with the media while ensuring professional conduct and integrity. 

The service level agreement also helps to manage the expectations of the media by informing you how our Media Office will prioritise and respond to enquiries.