Rural crime policing change worries farmers

Responses to 999 calls by farmers will not be affected by the redeployment, police have said

A Somerset farmer says he has been left frustrated by Avon and Somerset Police's decision to temporarily redeploy members of its Rural Crime Team over the summer.

Four officers from the team have been switched to helping support victims of domestic abuse.

It leaves the rural crime team down to two staff members - an Inspector and a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO).

The force says an increased demand for police services this time of year is behind the decision.

Jeremy Padfield, 56, farms in Stratton-on-the-Fosse. He is also the chairman of the Froome, Bath and North East Somerset branch of the National Farmers Union (NFU).

He says: "It's frustrating because we have worked very hard as the NFU and as a group of farmers with the rural crime team in Somerset. We've formed some good relationships, there's a lot of intel we feed into them.

"If it's (redeployment of officers) till the end of August then we can live with that.

"Where it might just lag over in the next four or five weeks is around the follow-up procedures after crimes have taken place."

Mr Padfield says hare coursing is the most common rural crime in the Mendips

Ch Supt Elizabeth Hughes, Head of Neighbourhood and Partnerships, said: "We’re wholeheartedly committed to keeping our rural communities safe and responding to rural crime in all its forms, especially incidents which are in progress.

"Demand during the summer increases by around 20 per cent and last year, we saw incidents graded as requiring an immediate or priority response rise by around 30 per cent.

"We’ve learned from experience and will be adopting an approach which better spreads the workload across directorates to ease the pressure on any one team.

"This was not a decision I’ve taken lightly, but we must deploy our resources to meet demand and where the threat, harm and risk is highest."

The force emphasised that responses to 999 calls will not be impacted, and that officers from their Neighbourhood Policing teams will assist the Rural Crime Team with ongoing enquiries during this period.

Given the redeployment, Mr Padfield told his fellow farmers to "always be vigilant".

"It probably takes me 15-20 minutes every day to go around and check all gates are locked and padlocked and all machinery is locked away in the barn safely," he said.