The team of four have left their superiors in the force staggered by their proactive approach to rural policing, using the Construction and Agricultural Equipment Security and Registration Scheme (CESAR) almost double the number of times of the next nearest police force.
For their efforts, PCs Adam Levitt, Paddy Stewart, Sean Dalby, and Helen Williams were presented with the inaugural Rob Oliver Award by the Construction Equipment Association (CEA) during a ceremony held at Lancashire Police Headquarters in Hutton on Wednesday 17 November.
The team’s #NoBorders zero tolerance campaign on rural crime has resulted in them:
- Attending 340 incidents
- Seizing 61 animals exposed to cruelty, neglect, and suffering.
- Recovering 173 stolen vehicles, pieces of farm machinery, plant, or equipment worth in excess of £1.1 million from as far back as the 1990s and as recent as the next day, including 25 caravans, eight agricultural trailers, nine stolen excavators, two tractors and four quads.
- Security marked in excess of £800,000 worth of equipment.
- Prosecuted 98 offenders.
- Executed eight warrants.
- Conducted 63 stop and searches.
Superintendent Gary Crowe said: “In a relatively short space of time a team of four officers have recovered more than 173 pieces of equipment valued over £1.1 million and in that time have managed to prosecute 98 offenders.
“If these were the statistics of the entire force, I would have been proud. To realise that it’s one team of four officers, the level of productivity of those officers is astounding and I’m brimming with pride at the work they have done.”
The CEA’S special projects representative Dave Luscombe was watching Channel 5’s Week on the Farm when he spotted PC Paddy Stewart talking up the importance of CESAR - the official secure database system police use to combat theft and aid recovery of stolen items.
“If these were the statistics of the entire force, I would have been proud. To realise that it’s one team of four officers, the level of productivity of those officers is astounding and I’m brimming with pride at the work they have done.”
Out of curiosity, Mr Luscombe then decided to look at the amount of searches the team had made using CESAR and was taken aback by what he found out.
Mr Luscombe added: “We keep a call log and were staggered by how many calls and checks the Lancashire team had made. It’s twice as many as any other force. The largest force in the country only made three checks so this shows how impressive Lancashire South Rural Task Force’s statistics are. For us it’s inspirational.”
The award was presented to the team by Chief Superintendent Andy Huddleston, from Northumbria Police, who is also the national police lead for agricultural machinery and vehicle thefts.
After receiving the award, PC Adam Levitt said: “Having a dedicated rural team for Lancashire is so important. It means officers are able to take the time to really work hard on finding plant machinery and bring it back to its lawful owners which is massive.
“We push the crime from Lancashire which lets people know that this county is not the place to commit rural crime.