Thames Valley Police rural crime update

An impressive new publication reporting on the work of the new Thames Valley Rural Crime task force.

Read Rural Crime Update

Every community across Thames Valley deserves the best possible service from the police. The response to rural crime needs to be very different to tactics used in our towns and cities but it should be no less important.

Matthew Barber, Police and Crime Commissioner, made reducing rural crime an objective of his Police & Criminal Justice Plan. He explains: “every community across Thames Valley deserves the best possible service from the police. The response to rural crime needs to be very different to tactics used in our towns and cities but it should be no less important.”

The explanation of the Rural Task Force by Inspector Stuart Hutchings gives a good summary of what we can expect:

“The trust and confidence of our rural communities is extremely important to us and that is why we are grateful to the Police and Crime Commissioner for the funding which has enabled us to develop a Rural Crime Taskforce.

The Task Force will consist of in the region of 23 officers in addition to dedicated intelligence support and all the kit and equipment required to function effectively in tackling serious and organised rural crime.

The Task Force will:

• Provide a statement of intent to our rural communities in tackling rural crime issues.
• Provide dedicated, proactive, specialist resource to enhance our operational capability in tackling rural crime
• Provide specialist resources to support rural neighbourhood teams in engaging with their communities.
• Focus on gathering and developing rural crime intelligence and ensuring that the team are targeting and focussing on those who cause the rural community most harm
• Effectively tackle cross border criminality through working with our neighbouring forces and co-ordinating our response across the Thames Valley.

We will be shortly recruiting the 23 officers and by early 2022, we are hoping to have a substantial amount of officers in post.

The objectives of the Task Force will link in with the local policing areas and the Rural Crime co-ordinators will provide a visible and very focused approach to rural crime and to serious and organised acquisitive crime.“