November 2022
The National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) works with every UK Police force to help implement the National Police Chiefs' Council wildlife crime strategy. One of our objectives is to identify crimes and emerging trends, then to work alongside officers to ensure the best responses are given to wildlife crime.
We have three operational specialisms within the unit, this is intelligence analytics, intelligence gathering and dissemination and investigative support. My resources are proportionately aligned to the UK priority delivery groups and support is given through detailed analytical packages that highlight what the specific issue is for the priority (yes it does change) as offending patterns and methods of administration evolve. Our products tell the group where the crime is by creating hot spot maps across the UK to show the worst areas where wildlife crime takes place. Then we tell them who’s doing it by profiling the top UK wildlife crime offenders. The NWCU leads and guides each priority delivery group to turn this product into operational policing. This is done via each group having its own operation.
Operation Galileo is a great example of this business model working effectively and the police response improving nationally.
The unit has doubled in size over the past two years, bolstering the specialisms and bringing detectives in to assist with high level investigations. Stakeholder confidence has led to increased funding which is welcomed as this gives the unit the opportunity to grow, meaning the NWCU is now also responsible for co-ordinating the UK police response to the illegal wildlife trade (IWT). We have recently carried out an assessment of the global trade and established what the threats are within the UK and what the rest of the world brings to our borders. Threats includes CiTES trafficked species, plants medicines and timber. Our assessment makes a number of strategic recommendations and identifies key deliverables to help tackle IWT. A sanitised version of this is held on the NWCU website.
It’s not just about being hands on with wildlife crime and the priority delivery groups. Uplifts in funding mean we have recently welcomed Mr Craig Fellowes and Mrs Claire Dinsdale QPM into the NWCU who have developed and will oversee the implementation our new training function. We have set a strategic aim for the NWCU to take responsibility for delivering wildlife training to UK police officers so we can seek to ensure that standards are level across the UK, leading to better investigations and better case outcomes. The first “foundation wildlife crime officers” training course was delivered in November 2022, and a further benefit is that by maximising technology we are making efficiency savings for forces by delivering the foundation training online, reducing abstractions and real money costs to UK Policing. We would like to encourage the continued discussion around more funding as we believe we are providing excellent value for money and would like long term financial security.
Alongside the growth we are leading the way or supporting a number of key projects pertinent to UK wildlife crime. One such project is the notifiable status of wildlife crime. We support the Wildlife and Countryside Link’s efforts on this and have represented it heavily within policing by showing the benefits of making a number of wildlife crimes notifiable. Of course, there are policing difficulties to overcome, such as National Crime Recording Standard compliance and the resourcing for this. But ultimately the only way we will have a true and accurate picture of all wildlife crime across the priorities is for the Police to notify the Home Office on these crimes.
As head of the unit, I would like to thank Link, the partners and the public for the continued support of the NWCU whilst we continue our wildlife crime fighting journey.
Chief Inspector Kevin Kelly is Head of National Wildlife Crime Unit
The opinions expressed in this blog are the authors' and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.
Banner image: ©National Trust Images| Adam Kirkland
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