Police: Rutland North Quarterly Priority Update

Dear Rutland North Resident, 

This is a quarterly update on the Rutland North Neighbourhood Priorities.

We have consulted the local community, in person and using the Neighbourhood Link ‘Your Views’ Survey. Thank you to those who have engaged. We have also analysed the crime data and statistics for the beat area over the past 3 months. 

Using all of this information we have formulated the following priorities for the Rutland North beat for July, August, September 2025: 

Road Safety. 

Rural Crime.

Burglary. 

These are also the top 3 results on the ‘Your Views’ Survey that you have told us that you want us to focus our time and efforts on. 

This means that the priorities have changed slightly for the first time in around 6 months, swapping vehicle crime for burglary. 

Unfortunately, after seeing a 100% reduction in last month’s burglary statistics, we have seen some more burglaries being reported, (mainly commercial, as well as the occasional residential burglary). 

This said, we are also still seeing reported incidents of vehicle crime. However, out of all of you who completed the survey, none of you answered vehicle crime and around 8% of people answered for burglary. So, this truly is where you have the power by completing the survey to ensure that we proactively focus on the priorities that you want your local beat team to deal with. 

If I can just add a caveat to the priorities though – we have and will always prioritise burglary, as well as vehicle crime as an offence, even if it isn’t/hasn’t been listed as 1 of the 3 listed local beat priorities for the quarter. The two go hand in hand, as often offenders commit burglaries to steal vehicles, or use a stolen vehicle to commit a burglary. 

Further to this point, to clarify the local priorities these are what you want us to focus our time on when we have proactive opportunities. We will always priorities any crime and investigation with viable reasonable lines of enquiry. 

So these are the new priotities, which I'll come to some statistics and data shortly. 

Interestingly enough, you also provided answers for - “what is good about the area in which you live?” as; low level of crime, low levels of anti-social behaviour (ASB), neighbourhood cohesion, actions taken by the local beat team, as well as engagement with the local beat team as the top 5 results in that order. 

As the local beat team - firstly thank you and secondly, we would agree with these results - Rutland often has the lowest crime and ASB rate of any UK county, the beat does have low levels of ASB and the neighbourhood cohesion in the community I see on a daily basis is amazing! 

A little insight into the figures on the Rutland North over the past 3 months (April to June). We have physically attended 48 transport related incidents in this time on the beat, this includes all manner of things including broken down vehicles, road traffic collisions, abandoned vehicles, highway obstructions, reports of manner of driving, issues with road furniture causing a danger, or debris in the road and more.

In 3 months, we have had 20 reports of vehicle crime related incidents, more than half of these incidents have been commercial HGVs having their fuel syphoned from their tanks overnight whilst the driver is sleeping. However, please see some crime prevention advice further down this update regarding keeping your vehicle and the items you choose to leave inside it safe. 

We have had had 4 reports of rural crime related matters, 3 of which were machinery or trailers being stolen from farms. 

The latest NFU mutual report has now been released about the cost of rural crime based on claims data. After Scotland - the Midlands Region has seen the largest percentage reduction in claims (31% reduction) and Leicestershire itself is down 35%. This mirrors the decrease we have seen in reported rural and wildlife crime. Currently we are approximately 20% down in total compared to last year. Melton and Rutland down by 39% compared to 2022.

Lastly, in a 3 month period we have seen 7 reports of burglary, these figures include breaks to commercial non-residential buildings, garden sheds, outbuildings as well as the residential home. Three quarters are commercial non-residential buildings, or garden sheds. 

So I can report that the ‘Your Views’ survey results do largely reflect the crime data over the past 3 months and you all answered highly for Road Safety and Rural Crime.

I would like to reassure the community that these figures are over a 3 month period and are still lower than other beats in our force area and of course we would like to keep it that way, which is why we work so hard to try and do this to protect the county in which we all love to live, work and enjoy.

Over the past 3 months we have been working hard on the beat priorities. We hope you have been enjoying reading the monthly action updates on the newsletter each and every month. We have been attending road traffic incidents, arresting multiple drivers for drink and drug drive, as well as patrolling and traffic calming in areas required, utilising the speed gun and working with the Road Safety Partnership mobile speed camera van to address speeding concerns in multiple villages (statistics published monthly on Neighbourhood Link). 

We have also been attending incidents of vehicle and rural crime, as well as burglaries and investigating these incidents, progressing enquiries to identify offenders and bring them to justice. We are also pleased to report that we have recovered lots of stolen equipment and returned it to the rightful owners, from vehicle crime, rural crime and burglaries. 

Please view the link here for some crime prevention advice in relation to burglary other than dwellings, (outbuildings/sheds/garages/commercial premises) on the beat area. Anything you can do to help us prevent these incidents from taking place, or having evidence (CCTV) to help our investigations is appreciated - https://www.leics.police.uk/cp/crime-prevention/protect-home-crime/secure-shed-garage/

We have also seen offenders entering properties by other methods when occupants, or the workplace is shut, so please ensure your building/house alarm is working and you switch it on when you go out. Thank you.

Lastly, a couple of other residential burglary crime prevention advice tips - offenders sometimes use a ‘lock snapping’ technique for a burglary, did you know that you can get ‘anti-snap’ locks to protect your home? Find out more information here - What is Lock Snapping & How to Prevent It - Master Locksmiths Association

Although, we haven’t seen the technique used in recent months - please consider if you have a keyless entry vehicle consider acquiring a “RFID Blocker Faraday Pouch” to store your keys in, this blocks the signal the key emits, offenders utilise technology to intercept and boost this signal for their benefit. The “RFID Blocker Faraday Pouch” blocks this signal and helps to prevent and deter the crime. Some offenders can steal keyless entry vehicles using blackmarket technology alone, without accessing the house in order to steal the vehicle from the driveway, so an “RFID Blocker Faraday Pouch” prevents offenders from using this technique. 

I have published the latest beat surgery/beat engagement and event dates on the Police.UK website here www.police.uk/ , please input your postcode to find out the upcoming events in your area and we hope to see you at one of them soon!

Thank you for reading. 

PC 1049 Jake Spruce

Rutland North Dedicated Neighbourhood Officer