The Future of Rural Crime and Rural Policing in England and Wales

• In Event: Farming, Fear, and Frustration: How crime and unrest is considered in the rural context

Abstract

Confidence and trust in the police is at an all-time low nationally. This is seen extensively throughout rural communities in England and Wales. Despite pockets of good practice, many police forces are struggling to resource the rural space, leaving communities feeling like second class citizens. The rural space is seeing a change in criminality towards an organised approach driven by national and international groups, and a rise in community self-policing and subsequent reports of vigilantism. This is couple with a lack of parity in funding for rural police forces, despite calls for a fairer funding formula at a national level, mainly driven by a lack of understanding of the act of rural crime and the impact of this on the communities affected among government departments. This presentation will explore the reasons behind this current state of rural policing from both perspectives – the rural communities, and the police – to provide a balanced and unbiased assessment of the key issues surrounding rural policing in the current society.

Author

• Kreseda Smith, Harper Adams University