Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (Commissioner), David Allen, attended Kirkby Stephen Auction Mart at the annual Tup Sale to listen to farmers concerns around theft and find out how the Police are preventing these thefts in the rural community.
The Commissioner met with the Rural Crime Team ahead of National Rural Crime Awareness Week at the sale where they were chatting to farmers around preventative security measures and providing advice around sheep safety.
Between 1 April 2024 and 30 September 2024, 18 trailers have been stolen in Cumbria, a 38.9% rise from the 11 thefts in the same time period in 2023. Sheep theft has also seen an increase in this timeframe, with 15 thefts in 2024 compared to 8 in 2023.
Commissioner David Allen said: “Reducing rural crime is one of my commitments as Commissioner and it is also a priority of the public, highlighted to me in my most recent Police, Fire and Crime Plan consultation.
“This week is National Rural Crime Week so we are trying to raise even more awareness around rural crime, the effects and what we are doing here in Cumbria to tackle it.
“Rural crime – especially theft – effects the livelihoods of farmers and other business owners so it’s imperative that we combat it, head on ensuring our residents are safe, and criminals face the consequences of their actions.
“However; preventing and reducing rural crime is a community effort. The Police do what they can to respond to crimes and raise awareness to prevent thefts occurring but they need to help of the public to reduce it even further.
“We, of course, want residents to report anything suspicious or criminal to 101 or 999 in an emergency. In addition to this, simple steps from CCTV to ensuring keys to equipment or vehicles are kept safe and not left in the ignition goes a long way to protecting personal property. Also, if you can tag your vehicles and quad bikes, that helps as does use of DNA tagging on trailers.
“Many thieves are opportunistic so if they feel that you are an easy target, they are more likely to try and steal from you. Let’s make their criminality even harder by ensuring we are as secure as possible.
“As your Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner, my role is to be the voice of residents within Cumbria, in respect of the Police and Fire services – I am your voice. If any member of the public has a concern about crime in their area, or around the Constabulary or Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, please raise it with me at commissioner@cumbria-pcc.gov.uk or call 01768 217734.”
Rural Crime Team Sergeant, Amanda McKirdy said “Since the team was launched in September last year, we have conducted over 200 visits to victims of rural crime.
“These visits have allowed us to build relationships with our rural communities, provide crime prevention advice and encourage reporting of suspicious incidents.
“Throughout this we have created a large network of people within our community, sharing information with each other and ourselves to support us in disrupting criminals in our county.
“We also work closely with other departments within our force and our bordering forces to target criminal travelling into Cumbria.
“All this work has led to arrests, bailing individuals with strict conditions not to enter Cumbria and resulted in convictions both in and out of force and helped us over £820,000 worth of stolen property in the last year.”
If you wish to report to police you can do so online at Report a crime | Cumbria Police. You can also phone on 101. Always phone 999 in an emergency or if a crime is in progress.