Working together to make sure rural crime doesn’t tear communities apart

That’s the view of PSNI Superintendent Brian Kee, who is the service lead for rural and wildlife crime here in Northern Ireland – and it’s undoubtedly an opinion that will be shared by farmers and those employed in the agricultural sector.

“Police are very aware that these crimes are impacting on businesses, farms, and people’s farms and communities,” says the softly spoken police chief, who is also district commander for Ards and North Down.

“To me, crime against the farming community has that additional significance because invariably, farmers develop their farms over generations and sometimes livestock have been handed down from grandfather to grandfather and so on.”

In fact, in recognition of this fact is the PSNI go a step further than other jurisdictions in their classification of crime.

As well as rural and urban crime – which is based on the size of a settlement, meaning that a crime which takes place in a village would be categorised as rural, as opposed to an urban one which would be committed in a town or city – there is also a separate classification for agricultural crime, which Supt Kee says covers “crimes against the farming community”.

He added that any offence in which “the victim is involved in an agricultural-based activity” is deemed to be an agricultural crime.

Rural crime is a wider definition. It covers a wider range of offences, including theft of machinery and livestock, and it is not limited to farm crime.

Serious and organised crime groups are often linked to rural and wildlife crime, particularly in relation to theft of agricultural machinery and cannabis cultivation.

There are so many issues to talk about in relation to issues faced by both farmers and the police in relation to crime, and cross-border incidents, including the muddying of waters by Brexit, is certainly one of them.

“At the end of the day, criminals will exploit borders all around the world, and the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is no exception to that,” says Supt Kee.

“However, I have to say we have an excellent working relationship with our colleagues in An Garda Siochana, and that provides a really firm basis for both practical and strategic cooperation between the two services.

“They face very much the same issues as we do.”

But as Supt Kee says, it’s constant collaboration with other groups and bodies, and joined-up planning and thinking, that is key to tackling agricultural crime.

“The Rural Crime Partnership here is really good; they chair quarterly meetings involving bodies such as the Department of Justice, Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), NFU Mutual, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster (YFCU), Department of Justice, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Ulster Farmer’ Union, Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster, and more.

“It’s a regular meeting that has been going on for a number of years.

“I’ve always found that sharing initiatives and ideas and taking forward collaborative projects to be valuable, such as some of those we have seen over the years, from rolling out the Farm Watch Scheme to subsidised projects for trackers on tractors, trailer and quads etc.

“It’s all about joint working between agencies. It’s the best way of working – sitting down at one table and sharing information, ideas and initiatives.

“Within our own districts, we have an appointed officer to lead rural crime. This will usually be one of our sergeants or inspectors, and they liaise with local officers and take forward various projects.

“I should also mention our crime prevention officers who do a significant amount of work, addressing the concerns and needs of the farming community, attending events and so.”

In fact, Supt Kee believes that it is all this collaboration which has led to a gradual reduction in the levels of crime “in the farming community which we have seen over the last 10 years”.

He says: “As our agri-crime bulletin shows, the number of burglary, robbery and theft offences relating to agricultural-based activity has shown an overall downwards trend from 937 offences recorded in 2010/11 to 402 recorded in 2018/19.

“The bulletin goes on to outline how for the calendar year of 2019, that goes down again to 374.

“So over the years we have seen an ongoing general reduction.”

The police chief says that this gradual decline really came into effect when the Rural Crime Partnership was formed, proving again to his mind the significance of working together with other organisations. But he stresses: “Of course I would rather see these figures going down than up, but at the end of the day I think it’s also very important to make the point that police officers take the view that one crime against the farming community is one too many.

“Rural communities have a significant part to play by encouraging farmers to report crimes and suspicious behaviour in the countryside, because the more we know about what is happening in terms of this, then the more we can allocate resources to tackle it.

“We will allocate resources where the greatest need is, and where we are aware of criminal activity.

“And our officers are still working away with colleagues in the specialist investigative branches and our analysts and our crime prevention officers to record crime and incidents of anti-social behaviour.”

The police chief said that officers who were based in rural communities, dealing with agricultural crime, received additional training via a specialist course run by DAERA, “to make them aware of legislative practicalities and so on”.

Supt Kee added: “What we found very effective was our officers doing joint operations with DAERA out on the ground, taking into account specific offences that they want us to investigate.

“So again it’s all about giving officers the skills and knowledge they need to disrupt the work of criminals and detect crime.”

Indeed, as the police chief reiterates, his officers “are as committed to preventing and detecting crimes in the farming community as any other crime” - and he is calling on that community to pick up the phone and report any suspicious activity.

The number to call is 101, or you can reach Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.