FOI 927/26

REQUEST

 

1. The total number of police officers currently employed by your force.

 

1. Whether your force has a dedicated rural crime team or dedicated officers responsible solely for rural crime.

 

1. The number of dedicated rural crime officers currently employed by your force.

 

1. The number of officers and staff who have received specialist rural crime training in each of the following years:

 

2023/24

2024/25

2025/26

 

1. Details of specialist equipment and resources allocated specifically for rural crime operations, including (but not limited to):

drone surveillance equipment

4x4 vehicles

high-powered torches

other specialist equipment used for rural crime activity

 

1. The annual funding allocated specifically to rural crime teams or rural crime operations for the following financial years:

 

2023/24

2024/25

2025/26

2026/27

 

1. The median response time for emergency and priority incidents, broken down by rural and urban classification where available

 

1. A copy of the force's current rural crime strategy, action plan, or equivalent document. If no such document exists, please state this.

 

RESPONSE

 

We consulted with our Human Resources (HR) department, our Cardiff &Vale (CAV) partnership and our Public Service Centre (PSC) who have provided the following information in relation to your request.

 

Question 1

 

Our June figures show we have 3469.79 Police Officers FTE.

Questions 2 & 3

 

The force has had agreement for a dedicated rural, wildlife and heritage crime team and is currently going forward to the recruitment stage for these posts. The team will include 3 police officer posts who are dedicated full time to the force’s response. In addition to this each neighbourhood policing area has points of contact for rural and wildlife crime who act as support, co-ordination and crime prevention liaison for our communities’ farmers and rural residents. While these roles aren’t full time dedicated posts, they form a large part of their daily responsibilities. All these posts are trained and supported by the force in partnership with the Welsh Government team, NFU and NRW as well as other partners.

 

Each area has access to Neighbourhood support tams who regularly conduct proactive operations to support the forces commitment to crime prevention and detection within our rural communities.

 

The force also has a Superintendent who acts as a force lead in this area supported by an Assistant Chief Constable, as well as an Inspector and Sergeant who help coordinate and develop the forces approach. Again, these are not dedicated posts but represent a significant commitment to this important area in our force’s delivery plan.

 

Question 4

 

There is no formal training currently in place, but CPD has been provided by our Tactical Rural Crime Sgt SPOC, Welsh Government and National Wildlife Crime Unit. With the introduction of dedicated officers, we are considering formalising training in partnership with the Welsh Government and other organisations.

 

Question 5

 

There are no specifically allocated resources however within the force we have drone capability. Our drone capability is not dedicated to rural crime and is a force asset. Individual applications must be made for their use for any operation.

 

We also have access to 4x4 vehicles in some areas. These are not dedicated to rural crime but have and can be used in rural areas.

 

Some local neighbourhood teams in rural areas have access to night vision goggles, high powered torches and ANPR equipment.

 

Question 6

 

The funding of training is taken from our general force budget and cannot be easily separated from other types of continual professional development which officers receive. Equally, funding for specific operations comes from local budgets and not a dedicated force budget. This question cannot therefore be answered retrospectively. As above however, with the establishment of a dedicated team the spend going forward on resources will be specifically ringfenced and this can be specified in the future.

 

Question 7

 

From  Jan 2026 – 27/07/26:-

 

15.8 mins – Emergency response median

46.7 mins – Priority response median

We currently do not differentiate between urban or rural and therefore data is unavailable.

 

Question 8

 

As this is available in the public domain, we are therefore not obliged to provide this information as the following exemption applies:

 

Section 21 – Information Accessible by Other Means.

 

This is an absolute, class-based exemption which means that a public authority is not required to consider the public interest in disclosure.

 

Under Section 16, the duty to provide advice and assistance, please see the below link:

 

Wildlife and rural crime strategy: 2025 to 2028 | GOV.WALES