Northumbria Police first in UK to receive Safer Street funding

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

The team have since gone on to recover more than £1 million of stolen agricultural equipment, while their efforts have helped nearly halve poaching offences since 2020.

The force became the first to receive Safer Streets funding of more than £250,000 to fight rural crime and protect the North East’s most isolated communities.

One of the rural checkpoints to recover stolen equipment (Image: Northumbria Police)

The funding will help develop various rural crime operations that will be boosted by fresh cutting-edge technology including thermal imaging and number plate recognition.

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To get the project off the ground, the team launched Northumberland Partnership Against Rural Crime (NPARC) to bring regional partners’ respective expertise to the table.

The force’s rural policing team and police commissioner, Kim McGuinness, was joined by Northumberland County Council, Northumberland National Park and its Mountain Rescue Team, Forestry England and Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service who were all signatories to the bid.

Inspector Garry Neill, of Northumbria Police, said: "We are passionate about tackling and preventing rural crime, and through NPARC, we have big plans in the pipeline to hopefully continue the excellent progress made over the last couple of years.

“That will include new technology to improve evidence gathering in order to identify those offenders looking to prey on our rural communities, as well as share intelligence more effectively with all our countryside colleagues to tighten the net around suspects."