On patrol with Lincolnshire Police team cracking down on hare coursing

Police in Lincolnshire say they are turning the tide on hare coursing - the illegal practice of hunting hares with dogs. Reporter Emma Wilkinson joined officers on the Rural Action Crime Team to find out how they are cracking down on a crime which has long blighted countryside communities.

In the middle of a field in rural Lincolnshire, police have come across an abandoned car seemingly stuck in thick mud.

Its former occupants are nowhere to be seen, but inside is evidence of a crime that has blighted farming communities across this area for many years.

In the footwell of the car are two dead hares - still warm - suggesting they were recently killed and those responsible may still be nearby.

As I headed out on patrol with Det Con Aaron Flint, from Lincolnshire Police’s Rural Crime Action Team (RCAT), he tells me that officers can spend hours searching for hare coursers in the county’s remote agricultural landscape. It can feel like chasing ghosts, he says.

Hare coursers are drawn to Lincolnshire because of its flat, open terrain. They use sight hounds to chase, catch and kill hares. Gambling is often involved and it’s associated with a range of other criminal activities, including theft, criminal damage, violence and intimidation.

Last year Lincolnshire Police received 256 calls about hare coursing - a significant decrease on the almost 1,900 made during the 2020-2021 season between September and March. So far this year, there have been fewer than 90 calls.

But with a police team of just seven officers covering such a large county, catching offenders can be a challenge. When reports come in, they can be many miles away and by the time RCAT officers arrive, offenders have often moved on.

And that’s exactly what happened on the day I went along on patrol. The first call of the day resulted in a 25-minute drive under blue lights to a location where hare coursers had apparently been seen, but when we arrived there was no-one to be found. It’s thought perhaps they were just innocent dog walkers.

The next call was more promising - a report of two men seen coursing with dogs. The information led us to the abandoned car.

It felt like we were now on the hare coursers’ tail, but even with a drone and thermal imaging devices, they couldn’t be found. The suspects could have gone in any direction, there were plenty of places to hide and plenty of quiet, rural roads where they could get picked up.

They’d got away this time, but the car would be seized and searched and DC Flint hoped there might be forensic potential from some of the items inside.

It was frustrating, but DC Flint tells me, that a number of key changes in recent years have helped them start to turn the tide on what he describes as the "hobby of the rural criminal".

"The legislation changes have really helped us because that's given us more powers,” he said.

“Now, if they have equipment on them to go hare coursing, that's an offence they can be arrested for. They also allow us to recover our expensive kennelling costs for dogs that have been seized, because the courts are now making offenders pay.

"And another big thing is the joining of RCAT with the the specialist operations unit, so now we've got the back-up of roads policing, armed response vehicles and dogs to come and help us chase these people and catch them.”

He tells me about a recent success story where three men had their dogs, car and equipment seized and were ordered to pay more than £50,000 in fines and compensation after admitting hare coursing.

Samuel Sheady senior and Samuel Sheady junior, from Wrexham, and Jason Davis from Northampton, led police on a car chase, before they fled on foot across fields and were arrested at taser-point.

There was a time not too long ago that many farmers felt police weren’t doing enough to tackle hare coursing. They had experienced damaged land and threatening behaviour and their WhatsApp groups were pinging with reports of people trespassing multiple times a day.

During the 2020-2021 season between September and March, Lincolnshire Police received 1879 calls about hare coursing, but last year that number dropped to 256. So far this year, there have been fewer than 90 calls.

While on patrol we stopped in Boston to speak to farmer Simon Gadd, who told me that many farmers are constantly on edge about rural crime - he has been targeted by thieves looking to steal expensive GPS equipment three times this year.

But he said he worries about hare coursers much less than previously: "There was damage to crops, cut gates, threats that they'd set your barn on fire if you tried to stop them, so it was pretty devastating for a while.

"But since we've had the introduction of the RCAT in the area, rurally, it has felt much better."

DC Flint tells me the biggest and best tool against hare coursers is being able to seize their animals. But, he says that does mean the force has to house forfeited dogs in secret kennels while cases go through court and rehoming them after offenders are convicted can be challenging.

“Offenders have tried to get their dogs back in the past so we can’t go through normal channels in trying to find new homes for them.”

“And hare coursing-type dogs are not always as popular with people as a Labrador or retriever might be,” he said.

On the way back to the police station, DC Flint says he’d like to think that eventually they could eradicate hare coursing but he thinks that may be optimistic:

DC Flint said: "There are always going to the hard-core people that want to come to this county and do this no matter what,” he told me.

"But now we are not chasing as many calls, we can focus on those people and when we identify them, we can do some serious targeted policing against them and make their lives difficult.

I only spent a short time seeing what the RCAT do but it gave me an insight into what they are up against - the time and commitment the fight against hare coursing demand.

Lincolnshire Police have made progress in recent years - so much so that other forces are looking to emulate some of their tactics.

But the battle isn’t won, and as farmer Simon Gadd told me: “Police have to keep the pressure on them, because if they don’t, they’ll return.”

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