Vale Watch recruitment - fighting Rural Crime

 We received the following email from the Vale Watch group who are seeking new members in our area. message reads;

"Hello

I'm writing to provide your Parish Council members with some details of ValeWatch - the farm watch group which covers Bielby.

ValeWatch is the largest farm watch and rural crime group in the East Riding and has a strong working relationship with Humberside Police and covers all the Western reaches of the Humberside Police area.

We have 225 existing subscribers and information is shared directly with police officers who cover this area and also with co-ordinators of all the neighbouring farm watch groups.  

We have strong links with the Humberside Police Rural Taskforce and Neighbourhood Policing Teams and details of activity can be shared in real time with officers giving them more opportunity to identify and catch criminals.  And, unlike many other groups, we have 25 Humberside Police officers in our intelligence sharing database so every piece of information we receive is sent direct to the e-mails addresses and phones of our local policing teams.

Membership costs just £15 per year per mobile phone registered to our group.   We have a designated number for calling in any reports of crime of suspicious activity and we communicate out through bulk text messaging and e-mails.  

How we work

ValeWatch enables individuals to be part of a group dedicated to sharing intelligence about rural crime and suspicious activity throughout our local community. 

We cover a wide range of criminality including:

• poaching and hare coursing;
• theft of equipment and fuel;
• burglary; or
• suspicious individuals (e.g. cold callers looking for scrap metal, offering tarmac or trying to selling items from back of vans).

We rely on the vigilance and co-operation of our members to provide us with details of crimes suffered or any suspicious activity observed.  Its not an alternative to reporting to the Police on 101 but means we can share information rapidly and we can forward photos and video evidence obtained by our members direct to officers' mobile phones.

Humberside Police also pass on messages when there’s information they want to share or individuals or vehicles they’re trying to locate.

Working Together

We also help our members by co-ordinating exercises such as marking of valuable GPS systems, trailers and other property which are commonly targeted by thieves.  

We've recently purchased over £10,000 worth of DataTag trailer kits which we're fitting free of charge to our member's flatbed trailers, cattle trailers and horse boxes in conjunction with the Humberside Police Rural Task Force.  Trailer theft is one of the most prevalent rural crimes so we're trying to help our members protect their property and avoid becoming a victim.

Our formal structure and profile means we can access grant funding to bring these types of resources to our area.

We're officially recognised by Humberside Police and even have the ability to pass some information direct into the Force Intelligence Bureau - by-passing 101 -  the only farm watch group allowed this privileged level of access.

I've attached a copy of a slide deck which provides a little more detail around what kind of things we're involved with and the information we share as well as copies of recent newsletters

We currently have only two ValeWatch subscribers in Bielby despite having much higher numbers in all surrounding villages.

It would be great if you could promote our existence to anyone in and around Bielby who may benefit from membership.   

Kind regards.

David

ValeWatch Committee"

I have kept personal contact details out of this but contact David on valewatch@gmail.com if you are interested or via me on bielbypmsecretary@gmail.com and I'll pass it on.

• Slides here
• September bulletin here
• Dec Bulletin here