Hampshire Police join Operation TRAVERSE in fight against fisheries crime

[FishingMagic]

Hampshire Police have formally pledged to support the fight to protect fish and fisheries by becoming a partner in Operation TRAVERSE – the Angling Trust initiated, multi-agency activity targeting illegal fishing and fish theft.

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[thecrow]

Why do the angling trust and others continue to put this rubbish out? they the police and the EA know that the chances of illegal fishing reports being attended by any of them are next to zero, do they think anglers are stupid.

Last year in my area just 2.3% of reports were attended that's 3 out of 130 reports, neither the police nor the EA have the resources in place to be able to keep to the rubbish PR that is constantly put out by the trust, anglers don't swallow it any more and even worse this type of rubbish is costing them members.

Believe nothing the EA tell you according to them there were During the 2015 to 2016 financial year a total of 62,076 (the last complete year of data) rod licence checks were carried out by our fisheries enforcement staff across the country ( I think they meant county as this is from the Wessex region)

In fact just 2104 were checked the 62,076 figure was the total of licences sold. out of 108 reports of illegal fishing just 36 were attended.

 

[peter crabtree]

why do you always have to make a negative out of a positive Graham?

 

[thecrow]

why do you always have to make a negative out of a positive Graham?

Because its not a positive its PR that has been pushed out time and again, if the police or the EA had the resources to do what they say they are going to do it would be great but they haven't, they know they haven't and the pledges or promises they make are hollow.

Why don't they just tell the truth come clean and tell anglers that they haven't the resources to do what they promise to do instead of continually treating anglers like fools with the same kind of PR pictures with an other promises to support X, Y, Z campaigns headlines and I know for a fact it is stopping anglers joining or even re joining the trust because they are fed up of these constant PR shots and lack of action on things they see as important to them.

Just to see if I am totally wrong and Either the EA or the police do attend reports of illegal fishing now I have sent an FOI request to west midlands police (my area) asking how many incidents reported to them either by the public or the EA they have attended, I think the answer if I get one will be interesting, if I am wrong I will admit to being wrong if I am not will the trust admit to being wrong? I have my doubts.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

To be honest. I would rather the police prioritised burglery etc.

 

[no-one in particular]

I am not a fan of the AT getting so involved in fishing crime; was it ever their job; who asked them to do it?. It seems its becoming their main thing; self appointed law. My recent experience of private companies and so called officers being hired to take on the law was pretty bad, they were so inept at it I did not have to pay the fine in the end, I took them on and would have made them look so bad in court and they knew it; because I made sure they knew it. Just as well for me but that's not the point. I think these things are best left to the police and the Gov/EA not private organizations.
Serious crimes are on the up, the police can work out how much time they want to devote to angling crime, crackdown weeks a couple of times a year maybe, they are best placed to work it out, not us or the AT. I am not surprised these reported angling crimes get a low response/prosecution rate. I bet privately the police wish the AT and such like would not interfere and let them deal with it in their own time and methods which would probably get better results..
Its not hard to picture, they have some serious burglaries/murders to deal with and in the middle of it they get 10 phone calls that someone suspects someone does not have a license or caught a roach out of season, that gets stuck at the back of long que I bet and totally understandable.

 

[thecrow]

self appointed law.

The whole thing is self appointed Mark it was never their job until they began to take money from the EA and now they are just the WAs lap dog.

 

[no-one in particular]

The whole thing is self appointed Mark it was never their job until they began to take money from the EA and now they are just the WAs lap dog.

I would rather the money we give Government was administered directly by them, that's what they are elected to do on our behalf. Same with the law, I like to know who is the law, what it is and where it is coming from; I would rather be absolutely clear where those responsibilities lay. When those come under the remit of private concerns in any shape or form, could be anyone or anything as I recently found out.

 

[steve2]

Only read recently that the police will not attend what they consider to be minor crimes. Most police forces also say they don’t have the money to attend Remembrance Day services. So where does the minor crime of fish stealing and illegal fishing fit into their brief. Surely this is an EA matter not a police matter. Don’t we pay the EA to do this?

 

[thecrow]

I have received a response to my FOI asking me to clarify which illegal angling reports I would like information about (I would have thought that illegal means illegal ?) I have asked them for information on reports made to them about the following.





Possess prohibited implements to take / kill fish


Fish / take fish by other than licensable means in circumstances where
fish / taking may be authorised


Possess unlicenced instrument with intent to fish / take fish without a
s.27A authority

Fishing licences
Aid abet fishing / take fish without a licence with a rod and line
Breach of condition of a fishing licence

Implements / nets
Attempt to use a firearm / prohibited implement / prohibited thing to take
/ kill salmon / trout / freshwater fish


Take / kill fish
Attempt to fish / take fish without a licence with an instrument other
than a rod and line
Fish / take fish without a licence with an instrument other than a rod and
line
Fish / take fish without a licence with a rod and line
Fail to produce fishing licence to a water bailiff / constable
Unlawfully take / destroy / attempt to take / destroy fish

 

[thecrow]

The piece in bold above are offences that were picked from a list of offences sent to me regarding illegal fishing by the police after they asked for clarification, below is part of the latest response from them, I have reduced the offences further in an attempt to get a clear picture I await the response.


In relation to your request on illegal fishing, we have undertook a keyword search on our databases and I can tell you that a large volume of records have been extracted but many are not relevant to your request. As an example of some of the records extracted, they have shown up because they contain words/phrases like ‘fish and chips’ or ‘goldfish shop’. Therefore, would you be able to provide us with any words or search terms that you would like us to include in our key word search?


I would have thought with the police would know what illegal fishing offences were? if they don't how are they going (recourses allowing) attend to reports from the public or the EA? Below are the offences that mu request has been condensed into.


Fishing with no rod licence.




Fishing with illegal equipment (nets or set lines)




Fishing without being a member of the club that controls the water




Removing fish without permission

 

[thecrow]

Still waiting for a final response to my FOI request from West Mids Police, I saw a piece on the BBC this morning where HM Inspector of Constabulary was agreeing with the interviewer that lots of calls made to police control rooms receive no response how high is a call about illegal angling going to come on their list of prioritization?

Please Angling Trust stop the BS PR and accept that illegal angling comes very very low within the polices priorities if its on their list at all.