Rural Crime: It's really time to take it seriously!

Dick Titley has seen the devastating and often horrific impact that organised rural crime can have on our communities and yet policing of rural crime for years has not had anywhere near the level of response that could be expected in our urban areas. From Dick's perspective this position has got to change as a matter of priority and he offers some solutions.

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The legacy of the previous Government will continue to be assessed as to their impact upon police capacity and capability over the last 14 years. In this time our various forces has published local policing plans that has sought to target violent disorder, organised crime groups (OCGs), urban street gangs (USGs), anti-social behaviour (ASB), community cohesion. Very few policing plans, however, hardly mention rural crime.

 An example in 2023 showed that Staffordshire was amongst the top 10 worst affected counties in the UK with an estimated annual cost of rural thefts being £1.8million. The 2024 Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner's Policing Plan however merely paid lip service to rural crime and appeared to be low in their priority list.

In 2024 the National Farmers Union (NFU) identified that;

“rural crime is becoming increasingly organised and ever more sophisticated, with examples of criminal gangs using technology such as drones to identify and scope out targets.”

Last year a typical haul for criminals was reported at one Humberside farm where during one night the victims had a 4x4 buggy stolen plus a diesel-powered power wash. A few months later thieves returned and helped themselves to 1000 litres of diesel plus the tank itself!  On both occasions stolen items were fitted with GPS trackers and locations were handed to the police. Each time the trackers indicated that they were in another police county location and yet no immediate action was taken to recover the stolen property.

The perceived lack of police response to rural criminal incidents such as these create a high degree of apathy and reluctance amongst the rural population to report incidents. Stories like these get out and spread like wildfire. In many cases victims cite there is a challenge to get through to the police telephone systems to register a complaint in the first instance. Whether a police patrol is dispatched to attend an incident is another issue all together! 

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Cross border policing of rural crime.

Investigating rural crime has often identified culprits who initially had worked on farms but then left for the urban life in favour of less challenging work such as stacking shelves and driving forklift trucks in local warehouses for similar money. There are clear examples where such individuals pass on their local knowledge of the farms to their OCG drinking partners who then travel out to steal goods.

Travelling OCG criminals will target rural locations often brazenly driving around in their unregistered vehicles during the daytime. They are adept at confronting farm workers with claims of being "lost" or that they are seeking to purchase scrap metal or livestock for the freezer. During these visits they soon get an insight into what is worth nicking.

In more recent years farmers have suffered the distressing and cruel slaughtering of animals when intruders target livestock at night, killing the animals by stunning them with a blunt object (sometimes a claw hammer) and then slitting the throat. The offenders butcher the animals in the fields before taking away their chosen cuts. The blood curdling scene left behind can be very distressing even for hardened farm workers. The reality is that they injure more animals than they kill, many of which will be euthanised the following day due to their injuries.

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So What are Some Potential Solutions?

Better use of Intelligence-led Policing and Information Sharing

Police must direct their attention to rural areas where they have persistent issues. This requires much better dedicated and sustained engagement with rural communities on a daily basis.. This, in turn, will enable incidents of suspicious and anti-social behaviour as well as criminality in rural areas to be reported with confidence to justify police attention. Closer police cross border intelligence sharing and operational liaison is needed when monitoring criminals who travel far and wide.

County borders often create separate crime reporting and intelligence gathering in each force area and there is often a clear reluctance to deal with criminals from other counties. Criminals understand this intelligence gap and exploit it, so it is essential that force areas move away from working in silos towards better collaboration.

Better Understanding and Promotion of Crime Preventative Measures

Police, in partnership with the NFU and other key stakeholders, must support rural communities to adopt effective traditional and more innovative crime prevention initiatives. Rural communities should be supported to consider improvements to their physical security, locking gates and outbuildings ensuring that unused equipment is always locked away, not just evenings.

Electronic surveillance is becoming more affordable and effective. In Nottinghamshire a GPS tracking device hidden on a leisure battery linked to a farms electric stock fencing was stolen. The GPS took the owner to a residential premises in a nearby town where the police attended and recovered the battery plus other stolen goods. The offenders have not returned to that farm since.

 Criminals do not like being caught, and do not like having their picture taken. CCTV and hidden wildlife trail cameras dispersed around entrances and pinch points provide valuable alerts to landowners. These capabilities are becoming more advanced, triggered by movement and with better night vision, remote viewing and larger battery capacity.

DNA security marking schemes assist with identifying stolen property. Police should advise local rural communities as to which marking schemes are effective and implemented in that force area.  ‘Smartwater’ now known as ‘Deter Tech’ has been a leading brand for many years, used to good effect on farming equipment and is robust enough to be used on outdoor equipment which take a battering during the unpredictable harsh British weather. Where security marking is employed this should be advertised widely on the estate borders and pinch points to act as a further deterrent.

Building Confidence in Rural Policing Communication

The lack of public confidence in the 101-telephone call also extends to the time taken for police to respond to incidents even via the 999 system. The time taken to respond to emergency calls must improve particularly in our most isolated areas. Those living in rural areas will benefit from feeling part of their community through social media. Having localised police and partner agency supported WhatsApp and Facebook groups are essential. They can provide vital and timely information regarding offenders in the area, suspicious activity and crime prevention and information sharing advice.

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Final Thoughts

We cannot allow the idea that policing offers a two-tiered response whereby rural communities are left with a poorer service. Perhaps rural communities do not shout as loudly as their urban cousins but they are acutely aware of the devastating impact of crime in their area. Some of the considerations identified in this article are in place in some areas but this must be industrialised to send the message to the criminal fraternity that rural communities “mean business”

Dick Titley: Eyes on Crime Contributor

Email: dt@preventionprotocols.com

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