Alcances preliminares sobre el principio de buena fe

As with many operations in an age of austerity, police budgets have faced reductions, and some may argue unfair funding for rural police forces (Asthana & Gibson, 2016). The issue of police budgets, and how this affects their response to farm crime, is highlighted by the PCCs of West Mercia and Lincolnshire, and illustrated by Figure 7.2:

“We’ve got reducing budgets, we’ve got increasing demand, this is something I sometimes think the government don’t quite get” West Mercia PCC

“I just wish the government would give us fairer funding so we could be even more efficient and effective” Lincolnshire PCC

Figure 7.2: Reductions in police budgets, financial years 2010/11-2015/16 (Source: National Audit Office, 2015)

Perhaps as a direct result of this, PCCs are having to become more creative in their approach to tackling farm crime. The PCC of Cheshire highlighted two such approaches using volunteers: rural specials and HorseWatch volunteers. However, when one considers

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the average age of farmers in E&W is 59 (Defra, 2017), it is not conducive to this approach being taken up by those directly affected by farm crime in particular:

“Encouraging them to join the Special Constabulary…not to replace regular police officers, but to compliment them” Cheshire PCC

“Now getting intelligence fed back from them (HorseWatch), and we’ve now got around 800 volunteers across the county which I am very pleased about” Cheshire PCC

An alternative approach adopted in West Mercia was that of FarmWatch schemes, however it was noted two-way communication is key to ensure longevity of these schemes:

“Get strong Watch schemes in place because that’s where you get people linking together…get good communications on…what’s being stolen, who’s being arrested. I

mean the police aren’t very good at that. They get a lot of success, but they don’t communicate it back to the people, so the people think the police are doing nothing, but

they are” West Mercia PCC

While the use of volunteers may well be an expedient solution to the issue of reduced police budgets coupled with a commitment to tackle rural crime, one has to wonder whether volunteering is the best approach within the rural environment. It is suggested that, while the use of specials and Watch schemes such as Neighbourhood Watch within an urban environment may be successful, the deployment of similar approaches within a rural environment may face very different reactions from communities as many rural police understand the unique nature of rural areas (Barclay, 2016; Donnermeyer & Barclay, 2005). It is possible that, if this is the case, those who volunteer may be seen as informers and create an air of distrust among other rural residents, even where there is nothing to hide. This may further develop into a distrust of the police in general, as it may be considered a get-out clause on their commitment to improve rural policing.

In addition, Watch schemes are only as good as their coordinator. It is unlikely a farmer would take on this role due to the workload involved in running the farm. A coordinator needs to be a prominent member of the community, or it needs police coordination. It is possible that, because of inevitable staff turnover, such coordination by the police would lack consistency. Furthermore, it is imperative to strike the right balance of notifications for all involved in the Watch scheme. Without consistent coordination, and with either too many or too few notifications, a Watch scheme is unlikely to enjoy longevity and proactive participation as reported by Barclay (2015) and Jones (2008).

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In relation to the strategic operations approach, the interviewees made several comments on what they believe is working within their force area. The Cheshire PCC highlighted an issue stemming from the force approach to the definition of rural crime:

“It would be quite a useful ploy for the government or others to actually determine across the country what we mean by rural. That would be a real help instead of all of us doing our

own thing” Cheshire PCC

Defra do provide a Rural Urban Classification (Bibby & Brindley, 2013), and according to the rural crime strategies of Cheshire and West Mercia it is this, or the previous classification of 2004, that has defined what is meant by rural. However, it is not clear how useful this is for operational policing, as some rural communities may not be classified as rural due to their proximity to a large population centre.

Furthermore, it was noted by the CPA of West Mercia, that as a result of historic government policies, many rural communities were not policed in the way they should have been policed:

“Crime in rural areas would have been policed on a second-rate basis, and that was to do with Home Office targets and guidelines. These have changed, particularly with the

advent of the PCC’s office” West Mercia CPA

While it is possible that these former policies may have led to the low levels of confidence that rural communities have towards the police, it is incumbent upon the police to take action to reverse these historic detrimental policing approaches.

To address these historic issues, the forces have identified a variety of operational strategies that seem to be proving successful in tackling rural crime:

“I think a lot of it is leadership at Local Police Area level” Thames Valley PCC “We found that targeted policing can be hugely effective…Operation Galileo aimed at

dissuading and prosecuting harecoursers” Lincolnshire PCC

“Go out on patrol with members of the rural communities so hopefully you learn a little bit about their area, they learn a little bit about our life” Thames Valley CPA

These approaches, it is surmised, are showing signs of success as they are getting farmers involved and the police are making decisions about how to tackle crime at a local level rather than a force-wide level. Even with the large-scale operations, local policing teams

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are working with farmers to make the operation work, while still recognising there is still a lot to do. Such an approach should instil confidence in the farmers that the police are serious about tackling farm crime, but the police need to recognise it is a long-term approach that is needed, not just a one-off, week-long operation. While police forces report reduced crime levels, there remains an overreliance on insurance claims data, rather than crime figures:

“You can see it in the National Farmers Union Insurance claims they have gone down in Thames Valley where in most of the rest of the country they have gone up” Thames Valley

PCC

As the previous quote illustrates, it seems that some forces use these insurance claims as a measurement of the effectiveness of their strategic response to farm crime. However, this may be problematic due to the various extraneous variables that may influence these data, including the non-reporting of losses to insurers, and the fact that NFU Mutual do not insure every farmer or rural resident across E&W. An unexpected side effect of the increased response to rural crime was highlighted by the Cheshire CPA:

“A lot of people I’ve seen say they have got to talk to too many people…you lot are just bombarding me…I’m a very busy person and I’ve seen lots of you, and whether we need

to be more considerate as an organisation and provide more of a one-stop-shop I’m not sure” Cheshire CPA

While farmers may be generally in support of the increased targeting of farm crime, one must wonder if there is a balance to be struck here, as the CPA suggests. It is possible that, due to the historic low-level response on the part of the police, farmers are not aware of the number of people that will attend, and maybe this requires some adjustment. Alternatively, a new non-reporting problem among farmers may be created if the police do not handle any improvement in responding to farm crime adequately. As noted in the above quote, farmers tend to work long hours, and often away from the farm, and they do not have the time to talk to several people about the same thing. It may be that the worry of having to go through this laborious, time-consuming process could override any newly-found confidence in the police that would lead them to report the crime at all.

In summary, the police are facing ongoing cuts in budgets, and so are increasingly turning to volunteers to help, however one would question how likely it would be for farmers to take part given their work schedules and an ageing farming population. FarmWatch schemes continue to be established by the police despite the recognition of the need for a good coordinator, which the police cannot always provide. Furthermore, there continues to be a

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lack of effective benchmarking to show how well the police are really doing vis-à-vis tackling farm crime.