Police to carry out rural crime blitz

Each of the 10 rural Local Policing Areas (LPAs) at Thames Valley Police will hold 10 days to tackle crime in the countryside.

They will run five in the summer and five in the winter, which will be intensive operational and crime prevention activity.

The aims are to prevent rural crime through high visibility policing in hotspot locations and respond, identify and secure suspects and bring offenders to justice.

Officers will also target known offenders and crime groups and are aiming to improve confidence in the police among the rural community.

Offences targeted will be hare coursing, poaching, theft from and of agricultural machinery and burglary of farm buildings.

Chief Superintendent Tim De Meyer, Head of Neighbourhood Policing and Partnerships, said operations will speed up progress in tacking criminals targeting rural communities.

Each LPA will be joined for one day by Datatag who will patrol with officers and offer specialist advice about tampered with or stolen agricultural machinery.