Hello everyone, for those that don鈥檛 know me, my name is Tom Nuttall. I am the Police Sergeant in charge of RCAT (Rural Crime Action Team) here at Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
听
Welcome to my first quarterly update about how me and my team, along with the rest of the force, are tackling rural crime and its linked anti-social behaviour, whilst also working in partnership with NFU Cambridgeshire.听
听
Having been a police officer since 2011, I also come from a rural background. Originally from Bolton in the northwest, I grew up on a farm - mainly sheep, along with a small livery - so I鈥檓 confident I know my New Hollands from my Massey Fergusons, and I know my stirrups from my bit.
听
My team deal with any agricultural, environmental, heritage, illegal hunting, and wildlife crime. We also promote rural road safety where the number of lives lost is 70 per cent higher than on urban highways. The NFU鈥檚 recent 鈥楾ake 5, Stay Alive鈥� campaign can easily be transferable to driving on the county鈥檚 rural roads - secure load, no distractions, safe speed, get home safe.
听
As the harvest has started for most, the county will traditionally see a rise in hare coursing. We know it is more than just the killing of a hare - it's the dangerous driving, it's the crop damage, it's the verbal abuse from the so-called 鈥榯rying to keep the tradition alive鈥� offenders.
I know the force made mistakes in how it handled the events in and around Manea in January this year. A lot has been done to make sure this doesn鈥檛 happen again - arrests, increase in dog kennelling space and money, vehicle seizures, working with the Eastern region forces, training up non-RCAT officers and call takers on hare coursing plus other rural crimes.
Hopefully the response we put into the aftermath has the desired effect of reducing the number of incidents.
听
Please keep reporting incidents to the us. Contacting us on 101 is improving with a recent uptake of call handlers. We are also improving the way reports are submitted online, making it easier and quicker than ringing the non-emergency line.
As always, 999 is there for emergencies and crimes in action. The more that gets reported, the more we know about these issues, the more can be done in dealing with them. We cannot spend time and resources on every crime if there are no lines of enquiry - but every single one does get reviewed by my team.
听
If you have any general questions or concerns, please reach out to Rory, your county adviser, and together we tackle rural crime head on.