Leicestershire and Rutland's rural policing team have recored a whopping 55% decrease in rural crimes when comparing stats from October 2022 to last month's recorded crimes.

Rural crime is an issue for large areas of the country, but it tends to go unreported. It can impact on insurance premiums, food prices and damage local communities.

It can be hard to know whether something is a crime and whether to contact the police or another charity or organisation. 

Rural crime tends to fall into one of four categories:

• agricultural 
• equine 
• wildlife
• heritage

It can also fall under environmental crime, which covers illegal waste dumping, fly tipping, polluting watercourses and land.

PC Rob Cross of the Leicestershire rural policing team said: "Here on the rural team, a big part of our role is to look at rural crime patterns in order to consider future prevention opportunities. In October 2022, Leicestershire Police recorded 94 rural crimes. In October 2023, we were down to just 42. That's a huge 55% decrease.

"October this year saw rural crimes that included livestock worrying, hare coursing, criminal damage, rural thefts and wildlife offences."

Rural crime has decreased in Leicestershire and Rutland from this time last year. Image credit: Nub News.

PC Cross continued: "We feel that it's important to feedback to the rural community (not just the farming and agriculture sector), but villages, gamekeepers, equine yards, rural businesses, local walking groups, youth groups and beyond. 

"We continue to train new and existing officers and staff about the importance of understanding rural crime and the victim impact. We have developed an app for frontline officers that gives them a host of bespoke information at their fingertips."

Please continue to report crime to the local police as appropriate. Use 999 in an emergency, or 101 or the online reporting tool for anything else. 

Alternatively, you can contact the rural team directly via email: [email protected].