Police have rolled out measures including increasing patrols and deploying stop-check methods to tackle an alarming recent rise in rural crime in Perthshire and Angus.
Officers in Tayside are making efforts to catch gangs of criminals after a spate of crime in Meigle, Coupar Angus, Forfar and Edzell in recent weeks.
Tayside officers have liaised with colleagues in Fife to discuss cross-border crimes.
Chief Inspector Ian Scott, area commander for Perth and Kinross, said there had been a recent rise in rural crime including criminals targeting farmyard premises, people taking part in hare coursing and the theft of scrap metal.
Perthshire has seen incidents of livestock thefts earlier this year but Mr Scott stated there is an “issue at the moment” in Tayside with individuals specifically targeting farm areas, mainly late at night.
“Angus has actually been more heavily hit than us but the crimes stretch into Meigle and Coupar Angus areas,” he said.
“We’ve seen additional, often overnight, crime in and around that area so we’ve put in additional patrols and stop-checks. We’ve had some success but we’ve more to do there.”
Mr Scott said police believe there are various small groups of criminals carrying out the rural crimes and revealed there had also been a recent rise in such incidents in Killin in Highland Perthshire.
“It can be a challenge to deal with these crimes due to the huge area involved,” he added.
“Rural crime is quite a wide gambit. Those people representing the rural, farming communities are quite vocal so they make their concerns known to us and we try to support them.
“We try to encourage landowners and farmers to look after their property. Due to the fact they don’t get a lot of crime in their area some of the residents are more prone to leave agricultural premises unlocked and items like scrap metal lying about.
“Unfortunately criminals are targeting these places.
“We review these crimes on a daily basis and try to look for commonality where we can detect it or, more importantly, prevent it by putting out preventative messages through community watch.”
He continued: “We try to establish a full, analytical picture so we can clampdown on rural crime.
“In Angus, there has been rural crime in Forfar and up in Edzell, so the thought there is this could possibly be criminals coming from the north-east area.
“We look at cross-border incidents and one of the advantages of Police Scotland is that we don’t just look at this in one area as these crimes are often carried out by travelling criminals, who usually need the likes of a trailer to carry their stolen goods.”
Mr Scott also stated that police use extra forces during the summer season in an initiative entitled Operation Ironworks to clamp down on visitors who camp in Perth and Kinross but choose to indulge in anti-social behaviour.
“This may be people who take too much alcohol or indulge in rowdy behaviour,” he commented.
“So we increase patrols and get our officers to engage with these people.”
