North Lincolnshire Country Watch
North Lincolnshire Country Watch is designed to encourage people who live and work in the countryside to be vigilant, share their knowledge and report opportunities for crime by reporting anything suspicious to the police. Intelligence from the community is absolutely vital in the fight against the crime.
Why did we develop the scheme?
Increasingly the rural areas in the county are being visited by criminals looking for opportunities to commit crime. In years gone by the rural communities had very little crime but now that the majority of criminals have access to vehicles the more remote locations have become more accessible. These areas are also more attractive in some respects to the criminal element as the likelihood of being seen is less than in more densely populated areas. Unfortunately we do not have a police officer in every village all of the time so we really do need the help of the public. By working together we strongly believe that we can prevent many crimes happening in the first place which in turn will make the rural communities safer and better places to live and work.
In recent times local farmers have increasingly reported incidents of hare coursing and poaching. In addition to the obvious wildlife crimes being committed, many of the offenders have caused significant damage to crops with their vehicles and made threats to landowners. A great many of these people also have links to other forms of criminality such as theft. Many rural premises have experienced theft of plant and farm equipment not to mention scrap and diesel.
What are the main aims of the scheme?
- To reduce local opportunities for crime and vandalism
- To reinforce the community spirit so that everyone can contribute towards the protection of their property by mutual cooperation and communication.
- To introduce early warning systems in the farming and countryside areas.
- To improve the intelligence flow between the rural community and the police.
What are the advantages?
- A reduction in crime and the fear of crime impacting on the community.
- Suspicious vehicles and people can quickly be reported to the police and other members of the countryside communities.
- Information and advice can be quickly and efficiently circulated between the police and the rural community.
- A crime vigilant community in partnership with the police will create a safer environment.
How does the scheme work?
There are a number of coordinators (2 in each of the rural policing areas) Each coordinator has a Country Watch mobile phone. When you join the scheme you will be given a nominated coordinator.
If you see something you wish to report, you text the coordinator, who communicates by text with a computerised system. This allows the original text to be sent out to all members of the scheme.
The membership fee covers the cost of the bulk texts being sent out to the recipients.
Periodically members will receive a news letter by E mail if you are connected to the inter net and by post if not. This will enable members to keep up to date with local issues hear about successful prosecutions and receive information re crime prevention advice or any other information deemed to be appropriate at the time.
We recommend that you save the coordinators details and the police non emergency number to your mobile phone.
How to watch?
The first thing to do is to observe any suspicious activity calmly and discreetly. The very existence of a country watch scheme in your area will act as a deterrent to many criminal types. What we would not advocate is that you confront the individuals concerned. We would rather you gathered the information quickly and accurately and reported it to the police in the first instance to give them the best possible chance of catching suspects and bringing them to justice.
Before sending a text to Country watch you need to decide if this is an incident that requires the attendance of the police. If it is a crime in progress we would recommend that you dial 999. In all other circumstances use the non emergency number 101. Always tell the call taker that you are a member of country watch. If it is possible to note the incident log number try to include this in the text to the coordinator so that they can see that the police have been notified.
All 3 rural neighbourhood policing teams will have a country watch mobile phone however it may not always be possible for them to attend the incident due to other commitments so it is vital that all incidents requiring the attendance of a police officer should be reported in the usual way so that other police resources can be deployed.
What is the point of the police having a Country Watch phone?
Not all incidents will be reported by country watch members so it gives the police an opportunity to circulate information via the coordinator that members might not be aware of otherwise.
It also allows the police to issue appeals for information about stolen property. Country watch schemes across the country have had great success in terms of locating and reuniting stolen items to their rightful owners.
Advice regarding sending your text message:
Try to keep the message as brief and to the point as possible if the message is too long it will require more than one text and this may create unnecessary additional cost to the scheme.
Try to use common abbreviations only.
Some examples:
- “Sus white transit W123 ABC 2 youths on board asking for scrap Last seen Worlaby.”
- “Several reports of theft of cable from wooden electric poles in our area be vigilant if have poles on land and report any sus activity.”
- “Obs Barton green people carrier WBC123Y, 3 males asking to buy farm equipment. If seen ring police.
