Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner convenes Rural Crime Round Table in West Sussex

Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne convened a rural crime roundtable recently, attended by Deputy Chief Constable Dave McLaren, local councillors, Sussex Police’s Rural Crime Team (RCT) and nearly 40 members of the farming community who had expressed deep concern with the number of crimes they were experiencing.

Areas suffering persistent crime levels in West Sussex included Chichester, Midhurst, Havant, Petworth and Chiddingly. Farmers and landowners were experiencing the killing of wildlife and livestock, harassment, criminal damage and hare coursing.

The roundtable gave the farming community an opportunity to discuss their experiences directly with the Commissioner, Deputy Chief Constable and the Rural Crime Team. Members of relevant councils were also able to express how this affects the wider community across the affected towns.

DCC McLaren provided an operational update, explaining the volume of demand on the force such as receiving 760 emergency calls amongst 2,000 contacts daily from Sussex residents. Chief Inspector Dan Eagle from the Rural Crime Team explained his plans to improve cross-border collaboration with other police forces by focussing targeted resources in hotspot, problem areas.  He also emphasised how he and his team will provide the farming community with the reassurance that they are protected by their police force.

At the meeting, PCC Katy Bourne encouraged residents to be frank about their own experiences of crime and to put questions directly to Sussex Police. The discussion moved on to what could be done to get ahead of criminals in order to prevent crime. The farming community and Sussex Police agreed that a closer and friction-free joint approach to information-sharing and faster responses to live incidents were an essential first step.

Better use of technology, such as automatic number plate recognition, was a key ask from the community in order to track down offenders who frequently move from farm to farm. Local councillors were asked to explore how their councils might fund more cameras in the rural areas.

Key takeaways for Sussex Police were: better communication with rural communities, including being proactive on the DISC information-sharing platform; providing updates where appropriate on investigations; and sharing successes.  PCC Bourne also agreed that call-handlers at the Force’s Command and Contact Centre should be made more aware of the breadth of rural crimes and for this part of call-handler training to be updated. 

Worryingly, the use of catapults were identified as a damaging trend in rural areas with criminals using them to maim or kill livestock and vandalise property.

While recorded numbers of catapult-related crime in Sussex are currently low, PCC Katy Bourne assured the meeting that she would personally seek clarity on this in Sussex and nationally look to join with residents calling on the Government to change the law on carrying catapults.

Speaking about the event, Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne said: “I am pleased that members of our rural community in West Sussex were able to speak directly and candidly to Sussex Police.

“Rural-based crimes must not be overlooked or be treated with less importance because the negative impact can be extensive.

“I agree with the farmers that we need to be getting ahead of criminals - we know their patterns, we know the hotspot areas so let’s get measures in place to stop them before they create more harm to livelihoods and livestock.

“I want to assure our rural community that I will monitor progress and actions from this meeting closely with Sussex Police to ensure we see improvements and increased feelings of safety in this area of the county. I am also hoping to assemble a similar rural crime roundtable in East Sussex soon.”