The Mail on Sunday has reported that a quarter of crime victims in rural areas don't report offences as they do not trust police to help

Nearly half of countryside residents don't believe officers take rural crime seriously, despite 94 percent saying the issue was having a 'significant' impact on rural communities.

Of the 8,000 people surveyed by the Countryside Alliance, 38 percent had fallen victim to a crime in the preceding year, with the most common rural offences being fly-tipping, theft of agricultural machinery, trespass, theft from outbuildings, wildlife crime such as poaching, and animal rights activism.

Three-quarters of those who lived in rural areas answered that crime has gone up during the past 12 months, and 56 percent of those who reported a crime were dissatisfied with the way it was handled by the police.

The Countryside Alliance is calling on the Government to create a national rural crime taskforce and adequately fund sparsely populated areas to ensure they are better protected.

Full article:

The Mail on Sunday - Countryside residents say there's no point calling the police over rural crime: Poll finds a quarter of victims don't bother to report offences such as fly-tipping, poaching and trespassing