Hunters now hunted as Humberside Police lead way in tackling wildlife crime
Humberside Police has hosted the first ever joint forces wildlife crime workshop and training day as part of a pioneering initiative to share good practice and joined-up thinking on wildlife crime and poaching incidents.
The workshop and training day, which took place in Driffield, East Yorkshire on Friday March 19, was attended by over 100 officers from all four Yorkshire forces along with farm watch groups, wildlife organisations and the RSPCA.
Following the newly appointed Priority Poaching Officer for England and Wales Gareth Cole; it has been identified there are no national guidelines for wildlife and poaching. Humberside Police is believed to be the first of all UK police services to take a cross border approach to wildlife crime
Sgt David Jenkins of Humberside Police explains:
This is all about responding to the needs of our rural communities. We recognise that wildlife crime, particularly poaching, has become a major priority for many Neighbourhood Policing Teams and that there is a need for a consistent, joined up approach.
We also launched the Humberside Poaching Policy, which all of the Yorkshire police services want to use to ensure that we can deal quickly and effectively with this issue.
Humberside Police has received national recognition for its pioneering role with the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which has recommended the adoption of Humberside Polices Poaching Policy for national guidance across all forces.
Sgt Jenkins Jenkins added:
We are taking rural crime extremely seriously and the response to this initiative has been incredible. We moved the workshop to a much bigger venue to cope with demand and membership of FarmWatch is soaring.
For many years, people have been travelling great distances to go poaching or committing crime against wildlife in the East Riding, with the chances of running into the police being just a potential hazard. With the support of the public and of Farmwatch, if you now go poaching in the East Riding meeting the police is no longer a potential hazard, it will be a reality. The hunter has become the hunted.
This is about shared experience and vigilance, which is why we encourage members of the public to keep their eyes and ears open and report any incidents they may be aware of relating to poaching and wildlife crime.
The wildlife crime workshop and training day coincided with the national launch of the British Deer Societys ‘Shine a Light on Poaching’ scheme.