'Give us the intel!' says Wiltshire PCC in fight against rural crime

Wiltshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) is urging us to feed information to officers to help them clamp down on criminals targeting rural communities.

The Force has been carrying out patrols on the A303 and A419 as part of Operation Ragwort, which see's the regions Forces working together to disrupt organised criminal gangs.

PCC Philip Wilkinson said they want to be more proactive.

He said: "It's intelligence and evidence led we want to better understand those people who are causing harm to our rural communities to get inside those networks and to do those networks serious damage."

The PCC added that rural crime isn't just a local issue.

"They're not just regional, they're not just national, they have an international reach and a lot of the farm equipment and all-terrain vehicles that are stolen end up in Eastern Europe," Mr Wilkinson said.

He continued: "Because of what's happening in Ukraine and instability that generates, farm equipment and all-terrain vehicles are of extreme high value on the black market, so there is a really attractive item for organised crime gangs to try and steal."

The PCC told us that much of the stolen equipment will be in Europe before the farmer even wakes up in the morning.

Collaboration key

Mr Wilkinson said working together is the way forward in tackling rural crimes.

He said each county has it's own challenges: "We are particularly affected by hare coursing, which is the recreational activity of many of those people involved in rural criminality, but I noticed over the weekend, for example, in Devon and Cornwall, there's been a huge amount of sheep theft.

"And we will constantly evolve and get better through collaboration to be more effective and to make everybody's life safer."

He's calling for the public to trust officers with information and intelligence to help them take down the criminals involved.

The PCC said: "We are doing everything that we possibly can with our resources to make you safer.

"We are there for you, but it does help us if you can also provide us with the intelligence to help us target our scarce resources."

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