Crackdown on rural crime in the Isle

Specially trained rural crimes officers will be out in force after some residents expressed fears that areas across the Isle were becoming targets due to lack of police resources.

Speaking after the theft of a cash machine from McColl’s newsagents and off-licence on High Street in November David Parkin, co-owner of Parkin Butchers in Crowle and Epworth said:”Rural areas like this are prime targets because whenever there is a shortage of police in Scunthorpe they direct all their resources to high crime areas and low crime areas such as Crowle are left unattended. I’m sure the crime fraternity know this. More resources should be put into rural areas.”

Supt Hall from Humberside Police has said; “We have increased our patrols in the area to be able to better respond to calls from our residents, and these will continue while the need is there.

“The rural communities across our force area face the same crimes as towns and cities but in addition to these it includes wildlife crimes such as hare coursing, badger baiting, poaching, heritage crime, livestock injury or theft, to name but a few.

“When crime occurs in a rural location it has a major impact on the victim. It impacts their livelihood and their ability to do business. It also creates a fear of crime in isolated locations and a feeling of being cut off from support.

“We have trained dozens of rural crime officers who are trained to deal with the community they work in and understand the needs of our rural residents.”

As part of the crackdown on rural crimes police are encouraging farmers who are concerned about the safety of their property to join their local Country Watch scheme.

The scheme encourages farmers to work together against rural crime with the police who have the ability to alert them to the sightings of criminals in the area via text so that they can be on the look-out and report any incidents.

Farmers are also key in providing intelligence to the police who can then act on information they have provided.

Call police on 101 or 999 in an emergency.