On 28th of January 2025 a colleague from Rushcliffe along with two colleagues from Bassetlaw attended the Operation GALILEO Hare coursing enforcers conference hosted by Leicestershire Police in conjunction with the Hare Preservation Trust.

The conference was attended by representatives of 30 police forces and 10 partner agencies.

With presentations of best practices and from the National Farmers Union and The National Gamekeepers Organisation about the impact of illegal hare coursing and other rural crime on their members. The adverse impact on rural business and rural workers include assaults, threats, damage to vehicles, infrastructure, crops and buildings, disruption to business, injury to livestock, escape of livestock due to damage to gates and fencing, These sadly are something that farmers, farm workers, Gamekeepers and other rural workers have to deal with on a daily basis due to illegal activity, trespass and damage to areas they are working on.

From case studies presented by Lincolnshire and Humberside police we know that those involved in wildlife crime and animal cruelty offences are often linked to other rural crime including organised theft offences from rural businesses.

As always, we would encourage people in rural areas to report incidents of wildlife crime and suspicious incidents to help build an intelligence picture and to allow officers to apprehend offenders.