A couple of weeks ago Rowan and I were asked by Superintendent Dave Hartley to join him and a team of around 40 officers from the whole of South Yorkshire on a secret police operation to catch illegal wildlife poachers. I love going out with the police teams and experiencing the work they do for my self so I jumped at the chance to come along.
After reports of illegal poaching and trespassing on private fields across South Yorkshire, the police had decided to carry out random night-time operations like this one to catch offenders in action, publicise it as much as possible and hopefully deter would-be poachers in the future.
Wellies, a scarf and thick layers later, I was ready for the night-time operation to begin and was very excited!
We had chosen to bring BBC’s Look North program to come along with us and a lovely journalist called Spencer. It was mine and Rowan’s job to look after him and ensure he got all the interviews and footage he needed for his feature.
The night began at around 7pm with a group briefing where the schedule and aims of the night were outlined to all the teams. Groups of officers were told to monitor particular areas where intelligence suggested poachers visit.
Next we visited the home of a farmer who had been suffering from trespassers on his land for some time. Spencer set up his tripod and did a quick interview with him asking him about his experiences and feelings on the matter.
Rowan, Spencer, Mr Hartley and I then boarding our police 4x4 and waited for updates on the radio to come in.
Before long we were off, lights flashing and on course to catching some poachers red handed.
We spent around 5 hours driving though muddy fields trying to locate poachers who were being chased or had been caught by police. Spencer used his time in the car to question Mr Hartley about the operation and understand in detail why we felt the problem of poaching needed addressing. We accompanied him as he took footage of arrests and cars being towed away until finally, at 1am, he was done and we could go home.
The next day Spencer’s piece was aired on Look North. It was a really effective piece and promoted all the messages which we wanted to be aired. Oh and thank god Rowan was kind enough to let me have the following morning off to recover!
