Farmers across the counties covered by West Mercia Police are being offered a We Don’t Buy Crime farm pack, to help keep their farm and farming equipment safer.
The packs, specifically tailored for the farming community, include SmartWater forensic property marking kits, deterrent signage and stickers along with an information reporting pad and will be offered to victims of crime in the first instance.
We Don’t Buy Crime is West Mercia Police’s response to acquisitive crime and associated harm.
It was first launched in 2015 and since then has gone from strength. Launched as an initiative to help protect towns and villages from would be thieves the initiative now has five main strands including We Don’t Buy Crime towns and villages, work with second-hand stores to prevent the resale of stolen goods, work with fuel stations to prevent motorists making off without paying for fuel and help staff spot the signs of criminal exploitation in vehicles, utilising the latest in covert technology and more recently work to address the associated harm with acquisitive crime with exploitation and vulnerability training.
The aim of We Don’t Buy Crime is to use innovative and effective crime prevention policing to help prevent people from becoming a victim of crime in the first place.
And, now the We Don’t Buy Crime Towns and Villages initiative is being rolled out to include farms, giving farmers the opportunity to mark their farming equipment with SmartWater forensic property marking technology and display signage warning criminals they have crime prevention tactics in place.
We know rural crime has a significant impact on our rural communities, when farming equipment is stolen, for example quad bikes or tractors, it affects the livelihood of farmers and prevents them from carrying out their day to day work. That’s why it’s really important to us that we work with them and do all we can to help prevent thefts.
Working with our Rural Matters colleagues, our rural and business officers along with our We Don’t Buy Crime officers will be visiting farms across the counties to not just offer them a farm pack but also speak to farmers and engage with them and find out more about the issues that are affecting them and what we can do to help.
The packs also include an aide for the type of information that we find useful when people are reporting suspicious behaviour, the information that helps us to build a picture of what might be happening in our rural areas so that we can gather this together and take action.
West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said: “I made a commitment to ensure people, their properties and the equipment they rely on everyday are secure, regardless of where they live. One third of all communities in West Mercia are rural and whilst SmartWater is already a proven deterrent against burglary in many homes, by introducing tailored farm packs we can work to ensure farms and rural communities also have these same measures to protect them from becoming victims of crime.
“As Commissioner I will continue to support and champion the We Don’t Buy Crime initiative and work with West Mercia Police to prioritise rural communities and ensure people not only are safe but feel safe too.”
For more information about We Don’t Buy Crime visit www.wedontbuycrime.co.uk Follow us on twitter @wedontbuycrime or visit our facebook page.