Police crackdown on rural crime

SPECIAL measures to tackle rural, wildlife and heritage crime across Cheshire have been announced.
Police and Crime Commissioner John Dwyer wants to ensure Cheshire Police have effective, efficient and proportionate responses to crime across it 35 rural beats, which cover 526 square miles – 57 per cent of the force area.
The county has more than 5,600 designated heritage sites including places of worship, monuments and numerous sites of historical and architectural significance – all of which can be targets for criminals.
Some crimes affect both urban and rural area. But their consequences and ways of dealing with them can differ in rural area.
There are also some crimes that tend to mainly affect rural areas such as fly tipping, theft of agricultural machinery or birds’ eggs.
But the greatest volume crime in rural location is theft and burglary from outbuildings and commercial storage, homes, vehicles and outdoor spaces such as yards, gardens and fields.
Theft of firearms and ammunition and of farm vehicles or machinery poses a greater risk.
The growing number of farm shops has led to increased levels of shoplifting.
Mr Dwyer said: “Crime can have a devastating impact on the community in which it happens. However, when crime takes place in a rural area, while of much lower volume than some non-rural areas, it can have a disproportionate consequence and community impact. The rural community can feel vulnerable due to their remote location and the criminality that affects them.”
He said the police have responded to the priority he set in his police and crime plan to tackle rural issues.
“They will be focusing on engaging with rural communities to prevent and reduce crime and identify repeat and or vulnerable victims, locations and offenders and work with partners where necessary to develop appropriate solutions.
“There will be specially trained officers with specific responsibility for rural, wildlife and heritage crime working within neighbourhood policing teams. They will work with effective intelligence processes that enable us to feedback to communities on action taken and results achieved.”