Rural crime is no longer a localised issue but part of a wider and increasingly organised problem.

That is according to Barry Carey, the secretary of National Rural Safety Forum.

Carey was speaking at Maynooth University, which hosted the inaugural workshop for the European Rural Crime Network (ERCN) today (Wednesday, June 17).

ERCN is a network of farming organisations, collectively established by and for the agricultural communities of Europe.

Carey added that groups like ERCN are "dealing with mobile, organised and transnational networks exploiting geography and seams between jurisdictions".

He said that asset theft (machinery, GPS units, livestock), environmental crime (illegal waste trafficking and dumping), and fuel laundering and distribution were key problems.

ERCN brings together rural crime prevention officers from national farming federations across all 27 EU member states and the UK in recognition that "rural crime is a transnational, economically motivated problem".

It said that the most effective response is one built upon the "shared knowledge, trust and cross-border relationships of farming communities working together".

Channels

The group's channels reach Copa Cogeca, Europol, Eurojust, the European Judicial Organised Crime Network, the European Crime Prevention Network, the UK National Rural Crime Network, and the national rural crime police commands of all 28 member nations.

These channels are designed to flow in both directions, according to ERCN, bringing community intelligence from the bottom up into the network, while external bodies bring issues from the top down.

The network is founded on four convictions:

That the most durable deterrent to rural crime is not increased enforcement but the elimination of the market that makes it profitable;
That the knowledge, vigilance, and cross-border relationships of farming communities constitute an intelligence capability no state body can replicate;
That every successful prosecution facilitated by ERCN should generate resources that fund further prevention;
That participation must be demonstrably in the interests of every member, so that the network grows through its own value.

The network is the "civilian, farmer-led cooperative intelligence and coordination layer that connects farming communities to each other, and from there to the enforcement and judicial structures that already exist," according to ERCN.