Police rural crime team recognised for work in Fenland

A police team fighting crime in rural areas, including tackling hare coursing in Fenland, has been recognised by Cambridge Constabulary.

The Rural Crime Action team, was one of five sections which were nominated as finalists at the 'One More Step' Prevention Awards

They were recognised for their work to tackle illegal hare coursing within the east of England, predominantly in Fenland, alongside associated criminal offences and anti-social behaviour.

For many years, coursers have been terrorising landowners and farmers, causing vast amounts of damage, harassment, assaults and threats, to name common circumstances. Through liaison with the National Farmers Union (NFU) and Cambridgeshire Countryside Watch (CCW), it was established some of their members felt terrified living in isolated locations during the hare coursing season and faith in the authorities was decreasing.

Policing across the UK had different ways of responding to hare coursing and information sharing was minimal, making it even more difficult to tackle what is a cross-border issue.

Operation Galileo was re-launched nationally, led by Lincolnshire Police, which is the co-ordinated response to hare coursing, focusing on prevention, intelligence, enforcement and reassurance.

During the 2020 to 2021 season, RCAT began taking a harder stance and started issuing hare-coursing specific Community Protection Warnings (CPWs), Community Protection Notices (CPNs) and Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs), as well as dispersal orders and other criminal proceedings. Incidents reported to police reduced by 18 percent.

It was important the crime was not simply displaced out of Cambridgeshire, so the process was adopted on a regional scale across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent.

Other forces in the region took the same approach and during the 2021 to 2022 season, there was an overall reduction of incidents across the region by 31 percent, and 47 percent in Cambridgeshire.