Rural policing system in crisis as FOI requests reveal forces don't have resources to tackle crime in countryside
More needs to be done to combat a rural policing system “in crisis” after a series of Freedom of Information requests revealed some forces don’t even have torches to tackle crime in the countryside.
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) approached 36 police forces operating in rural areas across England and Wales, excluding the likes of the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester which serve predominantly urban communities, and got responses back from 20 forces.
The results revealed that funding for rural crime teams within different police forces is like “a post-code lottery” and some forces don’t have the facilities to record and track rural crime data.
Five forces, including West Yorkshire and Cleveland, have no rural crime team, and eight forces have less than ten dedicated rural officers.
At least three forces are without torches, one of which is Cleveland, six without ANPR cameras, three without drones, and three, including South Yorkshire, with just one drone
There is no universal tag to track common rural crimes on police databases and a large disparity in rural crime team funding, with some receiving £900,000 and others just £1,250.
South Yorkshire Police has two high-power torches between 85 officers, but does have the largest number of rural officers (92), but they make up a small percentage of its force of more than 3,000 officers, despite being a predominantly rural county.
Multiple forces don’t have tags for tracking common rural crimes including hare coursing, poaching, fly tipping, and GPS and machinery theft which means officers must search records manually, limiting their ability to track trends, locate serial offenders, co-ordinate with other forces, and target these crimes effectively.
Of the forces tracking these crimes, they were poorly attended by officers.
West Yorkshire, for example, reported 47 poaching cases, with less than half (22) attended by officers.
Victoria Vyvyan, CLA President, said: “These findings show that our rural policing system is in crisis. There’s no serious national coordination, measurement, or even basic kit, to tackle surging rural crime.”
“All forces need a rural crime equipment pack, including torches. We can’t expect police officers to tackle crime in the dark. And rural crime will remain unseen without proper tagging systems, backed by central funding and coordination.”
“People living in the countryside feel treated like second class citizens by law enforcement. They need assurances, in this general election and beyond, that this cannot go on.”
Crime rates have surged faster than urban areas, rising 32 per cent since 2011 compared to 24 per cent in towns and cities.
The CLA is calling on political parties to develop a fixed Service Level Agreement, with appropriate and ringfenced resources, to protect rural communities from crime; for political parties to issue a standard Rural Crime Equipment Pack to every rural force, alongside training, to be funded centrally and reviewed annually and for the next government to invest in universal data standards and tags to enable joined-up policing, early awareness of trends, identification of target areas or crime types, and inform day-to-day policing operations and objectives.