Local Police Stations Key to Tackling Rural Crime
15 May 2012
The following is the text of Mr Allister’s speech delivered during yesterday’s (Monday) debate on rural crime.
Certainly, the issue has been causing rising tension and resentment among the farming community.
If you are a farmer, you are likely to have put indescribably long hours into building up what you have, expending any profit you make and ploughing it back into the business, and upgrading your machinery, plant and equipment. To see it wilfully stolen by some who have probably never worked an honest day in their life or taken by those who are part of organised crime gangs, is truly a sickening experience and one which leaves a great trail of anger and resentment. That is frankly not helped by the manifestation of a police attitude that, on occasions, amounts to little more than a shrugging of shoulders. We need a lot more than the shrugging of shoulders to root out this crime. We need active police pursuit. We will not get that by closing police stations, that is for sure.
I heard Mr Dickson’s pitiful intervention, suggesting that, as long as the police had a vehicle, they could get to you and it did not really matter whether they had a police station. That is absolute nonsense. A police station is a sign that builds confidence within the community. That, along with the proximity that it provides, indicates that, if you are up the Braid valley stealing, you are far more likely to be caught if the police are in Broughshane than if they are in Ballymena. It is basic common sense. So, catching the criminal —
Mr Dickson: Will the Member give way?
Mr Allister: I will give way.
Mr Dickson: Does the Member not agree with me that it is not the building that catches the criminal but active policing and active police officers?
Mr Allister: The two go hand-in-hand. Having a police presence in the community is a priority and a prerequisite to having a police presence out in the community where the police operate. There is no point in sending a policeman from a distant police station who has to stop and ask, “Where is such-and-such a lane? Where is such-and-such a road?” The local policeman in Broughshane or Portglenone will know where it is. He will not be wasting time and he may also have a fair idea who is likely to be doing the pilfering and stealing. It really is pretty pitiful that, in support of the closure of police stations, which the Alliance Party seems more than happy with, we have that line of argument.
It is not just about catching the criminal; it is about punishing him. It is right that the sentence has to match the crime. It has to match it in terms of the scale of what is stolen, the circumstances in which it is stolen and, if it is an organised crime theft, we need to see follow-up by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. We need to see that the assets of those who are profiting from organised crime — the transporting of tractors and other vehicles across the world as part of a network —are pursued as part of asset recovery. That can only happen if you have the detection in the first place, the conviction in the second and the sentence to go with it. Then, assets recovery can follow. Only if that sort of action is taken will we begin to restore confidence to the farming community, which has suffered far too much already.
The motion most certainly has my support and I recommend it to the House.
Mr Givan: I am grateful to the Member for giving way. Does he wish to comment on the need for the Minister to give much more clarity and guidance as to what force can be used by farmers when individuals come on to their property to steal?
Mr Allister: There is the common law and the statutory position on people being entitled to defend themselves with reasonable force; however, we need amplification on how that applies to the defence of property. Often, of course, the two dovetail: you may be defending your person when you are defending your property. The Minister needs to stiffen the law in that regard and give confidence to the rural community. Too often, the concern seems to be about the perpetrator and whether someone was over-vigorous with them, with little regard to the victim. That is wrong, and it needs to be tackled robustly in the law.
