POLICE have reassured farming communities that reporting suspicious activity or theft is helping tackle rural crime by building intelligence.

A t a constituency meeting for farmers organised by Thirsk and Malton MP Anne McIntosh at Thirsk Auction Mart on Thursday (October 9) the issue of rural crime was discussed, following fears among the farming community that police weren’t doing enough to tackle it.

Inspector for the Thirsk and Easingwold area Dave Murray said rural crime had been highlighted as a priority for the force. He said it was being targeted with cross-border crime to tackle opportunistic thieves who travel from outside North Yorkshire to commit crime. Operation Hawk was set up to protect North Yorkshire’s borders and patrol the road network so offenders cannot get in or out of the county undetected.

Since it was launched in the summer of 2013, officers have made over 500 arrests and stopped and searched over 6,000 vehicles.

“Not every motorist is a criminal, but almost every criminal is a motorist and they will travel,” said Inspector Murray.

“Criminals are more mobile now and there’s that opportunity of driving past the farmers’ gate and seeing that quad bike or tractor running while he’s tending to the sheep.”

Inspector Murray said rural crime costs the UK £52m a year.

In North Yorkshire over the year 2013 to 2014, the force recorded 6,278 crimes which it recognised as rural which involved arson, burglary, criminal damage, theft or vehicle offences.

The force is preparing to invest in mobile devices, so updating or recording data can be done in the community and avoids officer having to return to the nearest station - which can be a 30 mile trip in some areas of the county.

It is also setting up a new rural crime strategic group which will involve regular meetings of police and rural groups such as the NFU, Environment Agency and farmers to draw on their local knowledge.

At Thursday’s meeting, several people reported fly-tipping on the increase, often resulting in farmers having to bear the cost of getting rid of rubbish such as building rubble from their land.

The meeting also heard that poaching was becoming an increasing problem and they were becoming disillusioned with reporting it and no arrests being made.

Inspector Murray said even when a report to the police didn’t involve an arrest, it was still helping them build up intelligence that could lead to an arrest or charge.

He said: “We may have a good idea of what they’re up to, but if you stop them at night and there are no dogs or lamps or kit to suggest they’ve been up to anything, you might have to let them go.

“But you have that intelligence so you can stop them the next night to find out why they’re there - the intelligence picture grows.

“But if there are lamps on the car – any equipment we seize is potential evidence of poaching.”