Wiltshire PCC ‘really concerned' about rural crime
Philip Wilkinson says more needs to be done
Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson says rural crime is really concerning him.
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, the PCC said Wiltshire Police, which remains in special measures, has made progress in most areas of crime, but not enough in rural crime.
“My priorities right now are working with the Chief Constable (Catherine Roper) to sustain the improvements that she's putting in place and to make sure we've got the enabling services looking outwards and supporting the frontline,” Mr Wilkinson said.
The PCC said the Rural Crime Team has been strengthened with better equipment, but he remains concerned about the major robbery crimes in rural areas.
He wants to target rural crime gangs with an operation that rivals Operation Scorpion, which focussed on disrupting drug-related crime.
We need to do more,” Mr Wilkinson said, “I'm putting together a collaboration with other PCCs and Chief Constable's to take rural acquisitive crime much more seriously. So, that's going to be the next scorpion. But even bigger.
“I've had enthusiastic buy into the idea from all the Chief Constable's and all the PCC’s.”
The PCC added that he wanted the operations to be ‘evidence and intelligence driven’ against the crime gangs conducting these major raids.
Mr Wilkinson told us a farm recently saw £60,000 of equipment stolen or damaged.
The PCC stated that people are too dismissive of rural crime, claiming that there would be ‘outrage’ if such an occurrence happened in an urban area.
“But because it’s on an isolated farm, people say ‘oh, that’s rural crime’ and the farmer will claim insurance from the National Farmers Union.
“That’s not good enough,” the PCC said.