NGO continues to work closely with police forces across the north

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This month, the NGO has been busy working with police forces across the north on a number of projects.

The first topic was in conjunction with Northumbria Police, who were one of the first forces to start the ball rolling on a new national initiative called Partnership Against Rural Crime (PARC). This initiative is currently being rolled out across all police regions. This national initiative will be spearheaded by Superintendent Andrew Huddleston and will have set action plans within it. These seven action plans will cover:

♦Poaching and Wildlife crime.
♦Flytipping
♦Fuel Theft
♦Farm and Machinery
♦Livestock theft and worrying
♦Illegal use of off-road vehicles on private land
♦Vulnerability/safety in the countryside

All of these action points are pertinent to our members, as many of us feel that people like us, who live and work in isolated areas, are something of a forgotten minority.

In response to most of the points listed, the answer lies with a stronger police presence and tougher sentencing. With other concerns such livestock worrying, anti-social behaviour, vulnerability, and safety in the countryside the answer lies in better education.

From a police prospective, vulnerability means the general public coming to the countryside and getting into difficulty due to failures such as a lack of local knowledge or poor clothing, which can result in missing persons call-outs, and worse. From the NGO’s point of view, we highlighted the vulnerability of country people and workers who live and work in isolated areas and who are being targeted by groups of people intent on intimidation, abuse and threat of violence – along with being victims of criminal damage because of their chosen profession.

We also attended a second event with South Yorkshire Police, where the topics of the day were wildlife crime, dog legislation and off-road vehicles. Our input revolved around the human cost of poaching. We highlighted the fact that many of our members had been severely impacted by the act of poaching, and how many of them had been threatened with, or had actually received, physical assaults.

It was great to hear Craig Fellows from the National Wildlife Crime Unit say that the police should be the sole handlers of evidence in suspected wildlife crimes, and that third party organisations should not be running investigations. Hopefully this will stop a certain bird charity from using unconfirmed incidents to attack gamekeepers.

It is always good to be involved in group discussions like these, and it is really important that we keep on fighting for a better deal for the countryside, its workers and the wildlife.