Police and crime commissioner supporting Beaulieu’s automatic number plate recognition camera scheme

A COUNTYWIDE crackdown on rural crime will see automatic number plate recognition cameras in Beaulieu replaced.

The redeployable camera scheme was one of ten applicants to successfully bid for a share of £834,000 from the police and crime commissioner’s emerging needs fund.

Inspector Cath MacDonald, who leads the Country Watch team, said: “We’re really pleased that this funding bolsters our capabilities so we can continue to deliver on our commitments to rural communities.

“The automatic number plate recognition cameras will be deployed to hotspot areas identified by intelligence analysis and local officer knowledge, and as the intelligence picture changes we can re-deploy the cameras to new hotspot areas quickly and efficiently.

“Deployment of these cameras is a clear priority for people, as this was something highlighted by our communities as a necessity in our recent Rural Crime Survey.”

Elsewhere in the county, funding will go to thermal imaging equipment for police dog units, a volunteer recruitment drive to join mounted rural patrols and improved rural lighting.

Police and crime commissioner Donna Jones said: “I’m really pleased to be supporting a range of services that will help make rural communities safer and complement the existing initiatives and providers who are already tirelessly working to combat crime in the large rural areas that we have here in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

“Efficient policing and crime detection present their own challenges as 85% of the two counties is rural, countryside communities are more frequently becoming victims of serious and organised crime, and rural crime can often go unreported.”