UPPER Teesdale is being monitored by at least one automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera following a spate of rural crimes last year, it has been revealed.
Police confirmed during a rural crime meeting last week that as many as three cameras could be active in the near future to check for suspicious vehicles passing through the area.
A series of raids on farms around Forest-in-Teesdale during September and October last year saw quad bikes and other tools stolen.
Sgt Simon Rogers, of Barnard Castle Police, told the meeting in Middleton-in-Teesdale that a Darlington man had been convicted of the crimes.
He said: “It is quite a decent sentence. Touch wood, it [crime] hasn’t been too bad at the moment.”
Sgt Rogers added that the ANPR cameras had been financed jointly by county councillors Ted Henderson and Richard Bell and Durham Police and while one had already been installed, another one, or potentially two, could be put up in the near future.
Sgt Rogers said feasibility studies were being carried out about where extra cameras should be placed, and this was dependant on an electrical supply and a strong network signal.
Sgt Rogers added: “They have identified a couple of areas but that still needs to be confirmed. If you don’t know, one is already working in the area. We have had some decent results and some decent intelligence about who is coming into the area.”
Newly appointed neighbourhood inspector for Teesdale Ed Turner added: “I am pleased we are getting ANPR cameras because it is extra eyes and ears. It is a massive investigation tool for us.”
Sgt Rogers thanked people in the dale for helping police arrest two peoplein connection to a spate of crimes whereby people’s post was being intercepted.”
Isolated farms where the postbox is a distance from the house were being targeted in the Forest-in-Teesdale, Copley and Woodland areas.
Social media had led to people tracking down suspicious vehicles that led to the arrest of a man from Middlesbrough and another from Leeds, Sgt Rogers said.
He added that he had been in touch with neighbouring police forces and there had been nothing similar on their patches.
He said: “It seemed quite unique to the area.”
People attending the meeting said the only significant problem at present was fly-tipping.
It was claimed the problem was made worse because recycling centres do not accept trailers. Farmwatch chairman Peter Stubbs called for tougher action to be taken against those responsible.
Insp Turner responded: “It is difficult to prove and difficult to catch, but we do get some success.”
He added that a person had been convicted of the offence recently and had been given a six-month prison sentence which was suspended for two years.
