DAY 56: Milton Keynes wildlife officer gives talk to local schools on wildlife and rural crime

On Tuesday (14/1), PC Andy Perry, one of the Thames Valley Police wildlife officers, gave the second of his five planned talks to local schools on wildlife and rural crime.

Andy later explained he was very impressed with the knowledge the year 6 pupils at Olney Middle possessed about some of the issues he discussed.

PC Andy Perry talking about wildlife crime to a local school

There are currently four wildlife officers within Thames Valley. These officers conduct their wildlife duties alongside their normal day to day shift work as a police constable.

• Issues wildlife officers will investigate include:
• Hare coursing
• Poaching
• Collecting birds of prey eggs
• Killing protected species and collecting skins (either for personal collection or to sell them on)
• Destroying protected habitats such as bat roosts
• Taxidermy offences

Hare coursing is one of the rural crime focuses for Thames Valley Police. Listen to our podcast to hear PC Dean Kingham tell us why it is such a problem for rural communities.

Elsewhere, PC Caroline McLaughlin took on the responsibility for the running the daily ANPR checks.

She and colleagues identified the most commonly used routes in and out of the county (cross border areas are notorious rat runs for offenders wanting to make a quick escape) and yesterday (14/1), she set up on the A428 just outside Lavendon. 

Monitoring ANPR

ANPR operation in progress

Out of 160 number plates read, six vehicles were stopped and dealt with for various traffic related offences such as no insurance.

DAYS 49 & 50: Burglary hotspot patrols result in three arrests in Iver, South Bucks

Neighbourhood teams in Chiltern and South Bucks have been patrolling the south eastern corner of the local policing area to tackle burglaries, which have previously increased at this time of year. The patrols spanned four days last week (7-10/1).

After receiving intelligence as a result of a burglary which occurred last Wednesday (8/1), a suspicious vehicle was located by officers in Pinewood Green the following evening (9/1). After a pursuit, the car was pulled over in Seven Hills Road, Iver and searched. A large amount of herbal cannabis was found.

Three men were subsequently arrested on suspicion of burglary and possession with intent to supply. The men, aged 24 and 25, both from Slough, and a 26-year-old from Iver have all been bailed until 7 February.

Inspt Lucy Price said: “We identified a burglary non-dwelling spike happening in the first few weeks of January. Although there is no distinct hotspot area, offences have been found to occur across Iver, Iver Heath, Denham, Fulmer and Stoke Poges and there was a noticeable trend towards rural or remote locations with farms, stables and lock-ups being targeted for saddles, machinery, tools, hay and catalytic converters.

“We have been working with the Metropolitan Police in our ANPR operations so both forces can cover the cross-border areas which we believe make quick escape routes for offenders.”

Information about keeping your outbuildings and lock-ups safe can be found on the Country Watch pages of the Thames Valley Police website.

DAY 30: Aylesbury Vale officers work with Northants Police in cross-border operation

Neighbourhood officers in Aylesbury Vale worked with Northamptonshire on Friday (13/9) in a cross-border ANPR operation. It isn’t uncommon for rural crime offenders to cross County borders to commit these crimes (see the blog post about the stolen trailer found belonging to someone in Surrey!). This can make it harder to pin down the perpetrators and find the stolen items. Working with other police forces and sharing intelligence helps to tackle these types of crimes on a much larger scale!

During the operation, 28 vehicles were stopped and dealt with but no arrests made.

Meanwhile, the PCSOs and neighbourhood PCs went to Newton Longville in an attempt to sign up the entire village to Thames Valley Alerts. They didn’t do badly with 150 houses signed up by the end of the day.

On a mission to sign up the whole village

Neighbourhood team at Newton Longville village hall

The local school’s liaison officer went along to John Colet School in Wendover to talk to the students about wildlife crime.

An element of wildlife crime the TVP wildlife officers investigate is the trade of endangered species and taxidermy offences which includes the trade of birds of prey eggs, reptile skins and shells and ivory (see the massive elephant tusk worth £30,000!)

All the stuff the wildlife officers’ use for their talks and displays has been seized, most likely from airports across the Country, and are used for educational purposes.



A (very heavy) elephant tusk, tortoise shell and hippo tusk!



DAY 27: Five men arrested during 100 days of action patrols in Aylesbury

An ANPR operation to tackle metal thefts in Aston Clinton resulted in two arrests yesterday (12/9).

At around 1pm a vehicle was stopped and after searching the vehicle a basket of lead was found. The occupant, a 34 year old man from Watford, Hertfordshire was arrested on suspicion of theft, possession of an offensive weapon and going equipped to commit theft. The man has been released on police bail until the 10 October.

In another part of Aylesbury, four men were arrested during a 4x4 patrol of the rural areas.

While a car was being pursued by police, a bag which was found to contain jewellery and cash was thrown from the car. Once the car had been pulled over, four men, a 38 year-old from Witney, 21 year-old from Edgware Middlesex, 24 year-old from High Wycombe and a 35 year-old from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire were arrested on suspicion of burglary.

The burglary is believed to have taken place at a property in Warwickshire. All four men have been transferred to Warwickshire Police.

The team also visited the villages of Wingrave and Weston Turville and signed up around 100 residents to Thames Valley Alerts.

ANPR operation resulted in four men arrested on suspicion of burglary

Around 18 sites of heritage and churches were also visited and left with specific crime prevention advice.



Visiting heritage sites and churches



A word about heritage crime

Many land owners have ancient monuments and archaeological sites in or near to their property. Any theft or criminal damage involving a monument or archaeological site should be reported to police ASAP. Any work being carried out on a monument without consent can be reported to English Heritage.



Metal detectors

·         The vast majority of metal detector users are law-abiding people and will only detect and search for objects on land where they have the landowner’s permission, however, a landowner cannot give permission for a person to use a metal detector on a scheduled monument.

·         Metal detecting in a specified location without consent could amount to theft.

·         Illegal detecting at night is sometimes known by the term night hawking.

·         Report suspicious incidents to the Thames Valley Police as soon as possible on our non-emergency number 101 or 999 if it is an emergency.  

For further information please visit the National Council for Metal Detecting.

DAY 24: Police and Trading Standards check vans and plant machinery in Wycombe ANPR operation

Day two for the Wycombe LPA started with a briefing at Princes Risborough for an ANPR operation that took place on the A4010 between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough.

The ANPR was held together with officers from Trading Standards and involved security checking all vans and agricultural vehicles travelling through the area.



Owners of argicultural machinery are keen to have their vehciles CESAR marked

During the 3 hours of this operation over 1000 vehicles went through with a number of these being stopped and spoken to for a variety of reasons from no insurance to CESAR checking. Several owners have asked for their agricultural vehicles to be marked. These will be followed up over the coming weeks.

Throughout the day other officers deployed to continue spreading the crime prevention message to farms and rural locations. Have your Say events were also held at key locations continuing to sign people up to TV alerts and Country Watch.

Built into the patrol plan today were some of the more remote lanes on the area with a view to deterring fly tipping. One incident of fly tipping has been reported and officers will be liaising with the Council to take this forward.



DAY 17: Stolen Ifor Williams trailer found during multi-agency op at Knowl Hill, Maidenhead




Police officers pull over vehicles of interest like commercial vans, flat bed trucks and lorries

 Windsor and Maidenhead Local Policing Area also held a multi-agency ANPR operation with Datatag and VOSA last week.

Vehicles drive onto the ANPR checkpoint

Throughout the day there were 9 hits for a mixture of traffic related issues. Vehicles with no tax or no insurance were stopped and dealt with.



Checks are carried out to ensure they are legal or not stolen property



Datatag’s Nick Mayall patrolled with PC Probert from the Maidenhead area and identified an Ifor Williams trailer which looked like it could be stolen. The trailer was brought back to the ANPR check site and after a few enquiries was confirmed to have been stolen from Surrey in 2005 and worth approximately
£2000. The trailer has been seized and enquiries will be carried out to get the trailer back to the rightful owner.

VOSA carried out their vehicle checks from a vehicle road worthiness point of view.

All in all a productive day for the team!



DAY 16: Environment Agency and Datatag on hand for joint ANPR op in Wokingham



An artic lorry coming in for inspection

Last Friday (30/8), the Wokingham team worked with Datatag, VOSA and the Environment Agency to pull over larger trucks and lorries and check them out, particularly those carrying scrap metal or waste and plant machinery or farming equipment.

Throughout the day, the team pulled over just short of 100 vehicles. The Environment Agency used the opportunity to promote licensing around what scrap metal dealer vehicles can and can’t carry, while Datatag used their specialist knowledge to identify any potentially stolen machinery or plant. No stolen property was found and all waste transport was found to be in order.



Datatag checking over a digger to make sure it wasn't stolen property. All was in order!



VOSA issued rectification notices for roadworthiness, in particular for suspension problems and worn down tyres, and one vehicle was given an immediate prohibition notice keeping it off the road until it is fixed and up to the legal spec.

Inspector Greg Elphick said: “It’s been a busy day but we met a fairly law abiding bunch.

“It’s been great networking with the other agencies for the next time we run one of these operations.”

The team working at the ANPR site

 

A waste disposal lorry was checked and found to be in order



DAY 14 and 15: Multi-agency ANPR operation to tackle metal thefts in Maidenhead

The aim of this operation using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras was to disrupt and prevent crime in the rural area by pulling over vehicles of interest, or those which have been highlighted as ‘used in crime’ previously.

Although the team were specifically on the lookout for vehicles which could be linked with rural crime and in particular, metal thefts (metal theft is often linked to rural crime as stolen agricultural machinery and tools can be sold on illegally as scrap metal), other offences and the offenders are caught during these operations because obviously, you never know who is going to be driving past!

The ‘multi-agency’ bit of the operation came in the form of support from VOSA (with the Environment Agency and Datatag helping out on Day 15). VOSA are able to use specific ‘civil’ powers such as prohibition orders which are used to get dangerous cars and vehicles off the road and keep them off if until they conform to the legal MOT standards.

During the operation, the police team pulled over a car for no insurance which was then seized under Section 165. As VOSA were there too, they carried out checks and were able to put a prohibition order onto the vehicle for two bald tyres and a frayed seatbelt. This means the driver can’t simply drive away an un-roadworthy vehicle once insurance has been sorted out under the Police order.



Car being seized for no insurance and at the same time was put on a prohibition order for being un-roadworthy



The team also pulled over larger, commercial vehicles like Transit vans and flat bed trucks or others which are often used to steal larger farm tools or ferry stolen scrap metal from one place to another. The team set up on the A4 and throughout the day pulled over 18 of these types of vehicles and all appeared to be in order!



Police officer and VOSA making sure all is in order with a flat bed truck









DAY 9 – ANPR in hotspot areas across Chiltern and South Bucks

The team in Chiltern and South Bucks have been conducting Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) road side checks in intelligence lead, ‘hotspot’ areas.

The aim of using ANPR is to both disrupt any criminal behaviour in progress and prevent crime by being visible to the surrounding community. Any vehicles picked up by the ANPR cameras are stopped and checks are carried out on both the car and driver and passengers.

Although officers may be specifically on the look-out for rural crime activity and intelligence, quite often other offences are discovered as a result of the operation, as Insp Emma Burroughs explains: “Chiltern and South Bucks LPA have conducted 12 ANPR operations at various rural locations within the Local Policing Area (LPA).

“The intention is to carry out high visibility patrols to detect and deter criminals who are committing crime on our area.

“The rural crime figures are low for this LPA so the ANPR operations focus on all crimes affecting the LPA.  In excess of 2000 vehicles have passed through these sites, 110 of those vehicles have been stopped.

“The results have been for traffic process i.e. no insurance and the vehicles seized, or no keeper details and a number of interactions have taken place with motorists to promote the LPA’s work around rural crime.”

ANPR camera set up

DAYS 1- 4, Milton Keynes kick off 100 days of action!

Monday (22/7) saw the start of TVPs 100 days of action to tackle rural crime in the not-so seemingly rural LPA, Milton Keynes.

For the first of their five day stints, the Rural Milton Keynes Neighbourhood Team decided to intensively patrol 'off the beaten track' locations in high visability off-road vehicles, conduct Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) operations in hotspot locations and visit all 80 farms on the area to offer specific crime prevention advice.


Patrolling off the beaten track

 Here is what happened...

One of the most isolated villages in the neighbourhood area, Newton Blossomville, was targetted by criminals who committed 17 burglary and theft from vehicle offences both in the village and just over the border into Bedfordshire.

Since then, two men have been arrested and charged with 17 counts of conspiracy to steal. The two men Wilson Turney, aged 20, of High Street South, Olney and 21 year-old Scott Cannon, of Tabbard Gardens in Newport Pagnell appeared at Milton Keynes Magistrates Court today (26/7), Turney has been remanded in custody and Cannon has been conditionally released on electronic tag both until the 1 August.

A 15 year-old boy from Bedford Road, Olney has also been arrested on suspicion of four counts of theft of theft from motor vehicle, one count of burglary dwelling, six counts of burglary non dwelling and three counts of attempted theft from a motor vehicle. He has been released on bail until the Tuesday (30/7).

The ANPR operation resulted in six vehicles being stopped and dealt with for road traffic offences.

Although strictly speaking, these crimes don't come under the TVP 'rural crime definition', this is an example of how intensive operational work can not only build intelligence on the crimes Thames Valley Police are focussing on, but also detect other crimes which are of a serious concern to the community.

Sergeant Andy Paulden, who has led the team this week, said: "We're fortunate that we have a relatively low number of rural crimes happening within our area compared to other areas in the Force, however we acknowledge that when these crimes, or any other crimes do happen, they have a profound effect on the farming and rural community.

"We will be carrying on our high visibility patrols with the hope of disrupting and catching criminals who are of most concern to the area."

More information about rural crime, Country Watch and the Thames Valley Rural Crime Partnership can be found on the Thames Valley Police website.