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Sergeant Andy Ward (Thames Valley Police) said that a rural crime plan existed and that it was based upon the 4 P’s. These were pursue, prepare, prevent, and protect, with the main objectives being to increase confidence by building links with the rural community, reduce crime levels and work collectively with relevant parties for sustainable improvement. He added that rural crime would fall towards neighbourhood policing.

Sergeant Andy Ward added that they were keen to review any rural related incidents locally and that they would follow these up with a visit from the local team. He said that there was also a WhatsApp group chat that had been developed, with around 40 members of the public a part of it. Thames Valley Police announced through this group chat, that they would be around in the local community on Friday 26^th November. No arrests were made; however, 1 individual was identified as having committed traffic offences.

Sergeant Andy Ward said that the rural operation was currently focussed mainly on wildlife crime, stolen vehicles, and plants. He added that it was a flexible operation and that it was developing. He said that the rural crime taskforce was a designated team that was focussed specifically on rural crime. He added that by January 2022, 10 officers from all over Thames Valley Police would be allocated to this taskforce, and that it would be intelligence led. He discussed the most recent incident involving the theft of horseboxes. This led to plants being recovered and returned to owners.

Sergeant Andy Ward said that the taskforce had an inspector who was Stuart Hutchins and 2 sergeants, with a collection of detectives and PC’s. Within the borough there had been 30 incidents in the last 6 months that were flagged as rural crime. This had increased from 18 at the same point in 2020. There had been 1209 incidents of domestics.

Councillor Hunt asked if out of the 40 WhatsApp members, how many were farmers and where did the Independent Advisory Group mentioned by Inspector Mike Darrah come into play. Sergeant Andy Ward confirmed that these were 2 separate things.

Councillor Hunt asked if information came through to the police from farmers via the WhatsApp group. Sergeant Andy Ward said it could be but admitted that it had its natural limitations and encouraged people to still phone the police directly to report crime.

Alan Keene elaborated further about the WhatsApp group chat which had launched in May 2021. He said that there was now a good police presence on this group and that there were also no geographical boundaries to the group chat. Tim Parry to discuss the group chat further with Alan Keene offline.

Councillor Rayner asked if the number of incidents that had been reported was a true reflection and that if perhaps not all incidents were being reported and placed on record her appreciation for the training day that was held.

Sergeant Andy Ward said that they suspected like most crimes that they were underreported, which could explain the low numbers mentioned previously. He also stated that a reason for the increase compared to last year could be due to the way in which crimes were now reported, such as at first contact.

The Co-Chair William Emmett said that there had been numerous incidents throughout the summer affecting farmers. One most notable incident involved quadbikes on land in Holyport and the Drift road. He also expressed his concerns at police response times to the locations of incidents when reporting over the phone.

Nick Philp said that incidents such as minor trespasses had generally not been reported. He asked if it was possible for communication between the Police in different boundary areas to improve. Sergeant Andy Ward said that he would feed this back to his team and the control rooms offline.

Jeffrey Copas asked if there was available technology to pinpoint exact locations of incidents when phoning the Police. Sergeant Andy Ward said that there was an application called ‘What 3 Words’ that allowed for a person’s exact location to be pinpointed using co-ordinates.

Councillor Cannon supported Sergeant Andy Ward’s comments on the What 3 Words application and he also stated that the fire control centre had the ability to pinpoint exact locations of persons calling in to report an incident. He stated that he would be surprised if this was also not the case with the police. Sergeant Andy Ward said that he would pass this on to the control room.

Alan Keene also supported the What 3 Words application and added that it could also be easily shared within the WhatsApp group chat.

The Co-Chair Councillor Bateson asked for clarity on the boundary’s covered by Sergeant Andy Ward. He confirmed that the report he gave covered all the borough and that if a person was to be put through to the wrong police department for a different borough, then this would be easily re-routed and sorted.