Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police

2014-2019 Rural Crime Strategy

Rural Crime Strategy

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police supportrural communities

• We recognise the valuable contribution of rural communities.

• We are determined to work in partnership with rural communities

to reduce the harm caused to them by crime.

• This strategy sets out the framework to achieve this.

Our vision:

Protecting people from harm.

Our values:

We will;

• Take pride in our professionalism and standards of behaviour.

• Listen and engage.

• Use professional judgement and be courageous in making decisions.

• Seek out better ways of working.

• Lead with confidence and do the right thing.

• Work in partnership to provide the best service we can.

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police Vision

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police

Rural Crime Strategy

Our aim:

The aim of this strategy is to deliver the police contribution towards the rural

crime objectives in both the Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner and

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner’s Policing Plans by:

Reducing the harm caused by rural crime with a focus on community

engagement, crime prevention and effective targeting of those who cause harm.

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police Rural Crime Strategy

Guiding Principles

• Definition of Harm; Harm is defined in policing terms as any rural crime which

results in death, injury, loss or fear/distress.

• We will use the proposed national Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)

definition of rural crime in assessing and tackling the issue.*

• We will consider appropriate activity across:

• farming, agriculture and equine;

• tourism;

• rural community crime;

• wildlife and environmental;

• Organised Crime Groups (OCGs);

• heritage;

• angling;

• poaching.

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police Key Themes

1 Reduce harm.

2 Effective community engagement.

3 Target those who cause harm.

* see back page

Reduction of Harm

• Use of appropriate crime reduction technology.

• Use of principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).

• Intelligence led policing activity.

Effective Community Engagement

• Support effective watch schemes to a common standard, supported

by a common structure and technology.

• Ensuring special constables and volunteers support this strategy.

• Deliver strong neighbourhood policing to all rural communities.

• Engage fully with National Farmers Union (NFU), Country Land & Business

Association (CLA), Angling Trust, countryside and wildlife organisations.

• Work with Community Safety Partnerships to engage rural communities and

promote crime reduction.

Targeting those who Cause Harm

• Appropriate use of restorative justice.

• Effective use of Integrated Offender Management (IOM) principles in relation

to rural crime.

• Proactive policing activity in respect of Organised Crime Groups.

How will we achieve this?

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police are delivering a broad tactical plan

that covers a wide range of activities aimed at tackling the impact of rural

crime on individuals and communities, reducing the harm caused by rural

crime and making communities feel safer.

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police use detailed performance data in

order to continually assess our progress. Every element of the plan has a

named owner. These owners will be responsible for coordinating and

monitoring progress towards the plan and making key decisions around

operational activity associated with the Rural Crime Strategy.

We will have a clear and effective

plan for dealing with all aspects of

rural crime which will:

Assess all crimes and incidents to identify

whether it is rural crime.

Target high harm causers.

Apply the principles of Integrated Offender

Management (IOM) approach to rural crime

offenders.

Work with partners and other agencies to

prevent and reduce rural crime.

Promote and support watch schemes.

Develop a partnership approach to governance

and oversight.

How will we achieve this?

Reduction

of Harm

Effective

Community

Engagement

Target Those

Who Cause

Harm

{

Rural Crime: Definition

www.warwickshire.police.ukwww.westmercia.police.uk

@warkspolice@wmerciapolice

warwickshire policewest mercia police

Designed and printed by the Publishing Section, West Mercia Police.

For Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police.

Any crime or anti social behaviour that takes place in a rural location* or is

identified as such by the victim.

* Rural locations are defined using the DEFRA/ONS 2004 output areas (excluding market towns),

but including hamlet, isolated dwelling and village output areas.

Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police Success Stories

Horse Watch is a positive example of a successful rural watchscheme.

It employs all the traditional methods common to watch schemes,but also embraces new technologies and communications,

including SmartWater and Twitter. It will also deliver crimeawareness and prevention events for farmers, horse ownersand rural business.

Horse Watch have been awarded the NFU Mutual Insurance,National Country Crime Fighters Award - Best CommunityScheme 2013.

In recent years, fishery owners andangling clubs have noticed asubstantial increase in loss of theirfish stocks.

It became apparent that some EasternEuropean anglers were not returningtheir catch to the water,but rather, taking it awayto eat.

Fishery Watch wasestablished and membersnow have club rules andfishing law displayed inseveral Eastern Europeanlanguages, which has ledto an immediate drop inthe loss of fish stock andan improvement in relations betweendifferent cultures.

Not only has Fishery Watch

led to better community

relations and reductions in

stock loss. It has expanded

into a full cross border watch

scheme, which allows

members to pass community

alert messages and

suspicious activity.

An example of Horse

Watch in action, was

when they passed details

of a suspicious vehicle to

the police.

The police stopped the

vehicle and discovered

that it was laden with

tack. On further

investigation, due to the

tack having been

postcode marked through

the Horse Watch scheme,

it was found to have been

stolen from a burglary the

previous evening.

On this occasion the work

of Horse Watch resulted

in offenders being

brought to justice and

stolen property re-united

with its proper owner.