As a candidate I saw that rural crime was not being made a priority for Dorset Police. This meant that farm and livestock theft, wildlife crime, environmental crime and heritage crime was not being tackled. We had three people in the rural crime team and this was just scraping the surface compared to other forces. I spoke to rural residents including farmers. Crime in a rural setting was being perpetrated by organised crime groups which wasn't being recognised or dealt with effectively.
Farmers were quite rightly angry as they saw farm theft, poaching and hare coursing not being countered and dealt with
As PCC I took the following actions:
1. Made it a priority in the Police and Crime Plan and ensured a game-changing increase in the rural crime team of 500%.
2. Initiated and chaired the Dorset Partnership Against Rural Crime (DPARC). This brings together partners in our rural communities such as local authorities, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Forestry England , National Farmers Union, Country Landowners Association and many more with the objectives of ensuring farm theft is tackled, prevention occurs, flytipping is addressed and wildlife and heritage crime are dealt with.
3. Created new Watches to protect the countryside such as Country Watch and the Rural Mounted Volunteers.
4. Increased Sanctions for Flytipping. I did this by gathering support from the 4 other PCCs in the SW then other PCCs and the National Rural Crime Network to lobby government resulting in increasing sanctions and making it easier for Dorset Police to seize vehicles.
5. Supported a flytipping analyst. This role will help support the identification of hotspots, collate intelligence and help drive more prosecutions.
6. Supported the additional training of officers in heritage crime and wildlife crime and an increase in wildlife officers
7. Supported the first SW Survey on Rural Crime and the first SW conference in Dorset
This transformation has resulted in the following:
A 67% reduction in rural crime
A 28% reduction in the cost of crime in Dorset (nationally there has been an increase of 22%)
A national award for the rural crime team for Innovation Against Organised Crime Groups
A 20% decrease in poaching
There is more to do and this good work will be built on.
If re-elected in May I will do more:
1. Support the Rural Crime Team to continue driving down farm and livestock theft
2. Ensure resources and cutting edge technology are used to fight theft, wildlife and heritage crime
3. Introduce a crime information system to link the rural communities with the police
4. Drive DPARC and Country Watch and the other prevention initiatives
5. Introduce a Heritage Watch into Christchurch first and then expand across the county
6. Introduce Operation Ragwort with the other SW PCCs to tackle travelling criminals and make us all safer in the SW
Don't put this great start at risk - Re-elect David Sidwick on May 2nd #SaferwithSidwick