Chief Constable Simon Prince of Dyfed-Powys Police, who is the national policing lead for rural and wildlife crime, made the announcement on Wednesday 15 April at the NFU Mutual sponsored National Rural Crime Seminar 2015 after hearing an impassioned speech from NFU Lancashire County Chairman John Taylor. The seminar was held at the National Motorcycle Museum in the West Midlands.
“Partnership working is the key in preventing and detecting rural crimes. All of the partners in the NFU and Lancashire Constabulary Livestock Theft Prevention Initiative have brought their own areas of expertise together to set up a united front from the agricultural industry to fight rural crime alongside the police. I want other police forces to work together with relevant partners to develop similar schemes.” said Chief Constable Prince.
The NFU has pledged to support groups of farmers who want to work with their respective police constabulary to adapt or adopt the initiative which is the brainchild of NFU Lancashire County Chairman John Taylor who works closely with Lorraine Ellwood - Lancashire Constabulary’s Rural Policing and Wildlife Crime Coordinator.
NFU lead on rural crime nationally, Suzanne Clear, said: “Lancashire NFU’s staff and farmers have a blueprint for how this partnership scheme should work and are ready and willing to share it with their colleagues around the country.”
Lorraine Ellwood of Lancashire police added: “Crime has no geographical boundaries. All forces need to work together in taking positive action otherwise rural crime will simply be displaced.”
So what’s the NFU and Lancashire Constabulary Livestock Theft Prevention Initiative about? It was launched when almost 60 sheep were stolen from a Lancashire farm back in February 2014. The farming community identified a possible suspect but it became clear the local police officers were out of their depth with no knowledge of the agricultural industry.
John Taylor, who farms at Lots House in Lancaster, ended up housing the stolen sheep while investigations were carried out. It was then that John decided things had to change. He gathered together members of the NFU, Trading Standards, the NFU Mutual and representatives from the livestock auction marts and met with local police officers to see what could be done to tackle the problem.
A number of challenges were identified at initial meetings. These were as follows:
* Lack of awareness among the police officers of the agricultural industry structure and procedures.
* Lack of reporting by farmers as they believed nothing could be done.
* Lack of a central database consisting of information regarding stolen livestock.
* Help was needed from the wider farming community to assist police officers in the event of sheep or cattle being stolen.
Officers were then provided with a list of local farmer contacts who agreed to attend scenes to assist police officers in their duty if required. One of the main problems that needed to be overcome was what should be done with the sheep when they were suspected of being stolen. The solution was felt to be the introduction of an evidence tag. If sheep are stopped in transit and are suspected of being stolen, they are allowed to continue on to their destination where a police evidence tag is applied to them and their details recorded. Investigations are then carried out to ascertain if the sheep are stolen or not. As they were now classified as evidence, they cannot be moved, sold or the tags removed until all investigations are finished.
Rural and wildlife crime officers have been identified across Lancashire and have attended on farm training on awareness of the livestock industry as well as some basic livestock handling training, including tagging of sheep. They have also attended an auction market to get a better understanding of how and why stock move at certain times of the year and how they are traded. They are also trained in handling and tagging sheep.
In Lancashire there are five auction markets, plus one just over the border in Cumbria, who support the scheme. They have agreed to hold stolen livestock for a period of up to 48 hours when the police do not feel that they should move to their destination.
The scheme is financed by NFU Mutual, which is so impressed by what has been done in Lancashire it has made funds available to support other initiatives across the country following Chief Constable Prince’s public support of the initiative.
John Taylor said: “Apathy will be our downfall. Farmers must keep reporting crime no matter how small.”
* Partners of the NFU and Lancashire Constabulary’s Livestock Theft Prevention Initiative are: NFU, NFU Mutual, Lancashire Constabulary, Gisburn Auction Marts, Clitheroe Auction Mart, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Food Standards Agency, GAIN, Shearwell Tags, National Food Crime Unit, NWA, Trading Standards, Lancashire Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, Brockholes Arms Auction Mart Ltd, SelectaDNA, Lancashire County Council and Bentham and District Farmers’ Auction Mart Co Ltd.