Police powers possible for crime-hit farms

Farm workers could be recruited as Special police officers, who have powers of arrest, in the fight against rural crime.

Farmers are seeking assurances from Nottinghamshire Police that they receive the same attention as urban areas.

At a meeting on Friday, farmers told the MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, that rural crime was becoming more organised.

Detective Chief Inspector Melanie Bowden, the lead Nottinghamshire Police officer for rural crime, said stiffer sentences for house burglars had pushed criminals in the direction of commercial burglaries and thefts from outlying properties such as farms.

Mr Mercer asked if, as part of the force’s recruitment drive for Specials, it would be possible to recruit farmers and farm workers so they were on hand in rural communities.

A further meeting will be arranged for autumn at which farmers in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire will be asked to consider how the scheme could work.

Mr Mercer said: “I would like to see warranted individuals on every farm or farm community able to make arrests should the situation arise.

“It would put the fear into the criminal that they wouldn’t know who they were going to come across.”

DCI Bowden said she would pursue the idea with the force’s Specials co-ordinators.

The secretary of the Newark branch of the NFU, Mr Andrew Smith, said the mood of his members was that rural crime was on the increase and farms were seen as a soft touch by criminals.

DCI Bowden said farms were targets not just for thieves, but also those with malicious intent who set fire to barns, crops and haystacks.

She said intelligence was key and called for any suspicious activity to be reported.

Red diesel theft was another issue, with DCI Bowden to be given details of how other forces marked diesel so its origins could be traced.

She said there had been a recent success when police stopped a 4x4 that had allegedly been involved in the theft of red diesel, making two arrests.

The use of tracker devices in farm machinery was also encouraged.

Mr Mercer said: “We must all do what can to assist the police in catching these offenders.”