South Division gets more officers to tackle rural crime. 

The team, which covers the rural areas of Preston, Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire and will go from 4 specialist officers to 7 who will continue to combat things like machinery theft, rural, wildlife and heritage crime. 

Since being established in 2021, the South Rural Task Force has: 

• Made 57 arrests. 

• Interviewed a further 47 people under caution. 

• Seized 194 stolen vehicles or plant machinery. 

• Conducted 227 stop searches. 

• Issued 64 traffic offence reports. 

•  Issued 3 Criminal Behaviour Orders. 

• Reduced hare coursing in West Lancashire by over 60% and been recognised by The Poaching and Hare Coursing Priority Delivery Group for it. 

• Won the first eve Rob Oliver award which is issued by industry for excellent in the fight against construction, plant and agricultural machinery theft. 

• Raised over £5000 for RABI, a charity that supports farmers and their families both financially and with their mental health. 

Sgt Darren Carr, who heads up the team, said: “I am incredibly proud of the achievement of the South Rural Task Force since the team was established in 2021.

"Despite being a small team, their dedication and passion for protecting our rural communities has produced some great results so far.

"We will continue to develop close working relationships with partner agencies and neighbouring forces to target offenders who travel between counties to commit crime and deal with the wide variety of reports that we receive.

"Through our work with the RSPCA, we have helped to recover and safeguard hundreds of animals which had been neglected or mistreated and assisted in prosecuting offenders. 

“I am excited to see what more we can achieve in the future with the addition of more officers to our already strong team.” 
 
Clive Grunshaw, Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner, said: "I funded the creation of our rural taskforces in my previous term as Commissioner, and I'm really pleased to see this expansion of the team in south division, with even more officers now out in the rural communities they serve.  

"These teams understand the unique needs of policing our rural areas and the challenges that this brings, with the results speaking for themselves.  

"As Commissioner I will continue to provide strong leadership and scrutiny to ensure officers are delivering what the public want, picking up local intelligence to fight crime and keep people safe."  

The local community can provide feedback about the issues that matter most to them by completing the survey at stayintheknow.co.uk/lancashiretalking.