Poaching offences across Northumbria halve as rural crime crackdown continues to reap rewards

Poaching offences across the North East have halved as a rural crime crackdown continues to reap rewards.

Northumbria Police’s dedicated rural policing team was set up in June 2020 tasked with preventing and tackling rural acquisitive crime, wildlife and poaching offences.

In that year, a total of 616 poaching offences were reported across the region.

Since then, under the banner of Operation Hawkeye, police have been carrying out targeted activity across the North of England and Scotland alongside neighbouring police forces and partners.

They have been superbly assisted by the Force’s Rural Crime Volunteers – a team of more than 50 residents who feed directly into on-patrol officers if they see anything that rouses suspicion in the areas they know best.

And the collective crackdown is making a difference. In 2022, officers saw the number of reported poaching offences in Northumbria drop to just 312 – almost half the number from two years earlier.

Inspector Garry Neill, of Northumbria Police’s rural policing team, said: “A huge amount of work has been carried out by the whole team, our partners and volunteers over the last two-and-a-half years and these figures are testament to that.

“We are passionate about protecting those who live in the most remote areas of Northumbria and we know the impact that rural crime has on these communities.

“We will continue to pursue offenders using innovative methods and tactics, including our nine-force regional Community Protection Notices launched in November 2022 as one of the biggest anti-poaching crackdowns of its kind in the UK.

“Tackling and preventing poaching offences has been a priority for the team over the last few years. These offenders often use dogs to indiscriminately kill wildlife whilst leaving behind a trail of destruction by damaging fields and fences with vehicles.