New rural crime strategy launched during rural crime week

Suffolk Constabulary’s newest recruit to the Rural and Wildlife Crime Team is hoping to bring her experience of working with horses to her new role.

PC Sophie Buckle, (pictured above) who is based at Bury St Edmunds, joins with 10 years of policing experience already under her belt.

Sophie, prior to joining the police, previously worked as a horse-riding instructor and in the training and management of horses for almost 10 years.

Sophie said: “I have always had a personal passion for the rural and wildlife side of policing and I am thrilled to be able to bring my experience of the equine industry to my new policing role. I am currently working with partner agencies and local equine establishments to organise events going forward and I’m keen to encourage other officers to understand the impact rural crime has on the community.”

The Rural and Wildlife Team offer crime prevention advice to farmers and landowners alerting them to crime trends and patterns and collating intelligence. They also work closely with front line officers, who are often the first to respond to rural crimes and so the RWCT offer expert advice and guidance when needed.

As part of national Rural Crime Week (September 18 to 25) Suffolk is also launching a revised Rural and Wildlife strategy. This will include a heavy focus on the community, public engagements, offering crime prevention advice, partnership working. They will also continue their commitment to tackle a variety of rural crime including equine crime, livestock offences, heritage crime which involves the harming of buildings, monuments and parks, and the theft of farming machinery, vehicles, and fuel.

Also as part of Rural Crime week representatives from Suffolk police will be attending four farms today (Wednesday, September 20) to offer local farmers crime reduction advice and listen to any concerns they have. The team will include members of the Rural and Wildlife team, a Design Out Crime Officer and a Modern Slavery officer. They’ll be visiting Stowupland, Bacton, Great Ashfield and Sudbury.

Meanwhile, work over recent months has seen the team attend a pre-harvest farm safety event, where prevention advice was delivered to 120 farmers; providing advice to landowners that are vulnerable to illegal metal detecting and also liaising closely with anti-hunting organisations and hunts, with a view to seeking compliance with the hunting act.

The team have secured some recent successful outcomes. These include four males receiving suspended custodial sentences for heritage (metal detecting) crime; elsewhere another male was convicted for the death of five goshawks, and the also worked with the RSPCA in a case involving the seizure of mistreated dogs, resulting in three people being arrested as well as an illegally held firearm recovered.

County Policing Commander Alice Scott said: “Policing a rural area such as Suffolk offers unique challenges and requires us to work with all areas of the rural community to prevent and detect rural crime. This includes residents, businesses, farmers and those involved in the county’s thriving tourist industry.

“Our rural crime and wildlife team have specialist skills to respond to a breadth of wildlife and heritage crimes. They share a real passion for this work with our rural communities working hard to keep people safe and protect property. There is still more that can be done and in this strategy, we have identified the key challenges faced by rural communities and as a result, the demand on policing.”