How Disc supports rural and wildlife crime reduction

The National Wildlife Crime Unit has adopted Disc as its information-sharing platform. This follows the decision by the national police-led operation tackling hare coursing and poaching, Operation Galileo, to use Disc, and the system’s adoption by two police forces to support their local rural crime reduction efforts.

The NWCU’s job is to obtain and disseminate information from a wide range of organisations, and assist police forces across the UK in wildlife crime investigation. Its current priorities focus on trade in endangered species, cyber-enabled wildlife crime, poaching and hare coursing, and crime related to badgers, bats, freshwater pearl mussels and birds of prey.

Information gathered by the NWCU, as well as Op Galileo, needs to be disseminated quickly and efficiently to rural crime police officers throughout the country. Because each Disc system can link directly with any other, not only does this support closer and more effective interworking between the two organisations but also with police officers countrywide.

Linking the Disc systems at the NWCU and Op Galileo with police forces’ own Disc systems – currently implemented by rural crime reduction teams in two constabularies – means this information can be disseminated not only to local police officers but also direct to rural businesses and other relevant groups throughout each forces’ area.

Says Disc Managing Director Steve Lang: “Rural crime is highly sophisticated, and criminals are highly mobile. We’re excited to see Disc playing a role in keeping police across the country informed about rural crime and the criminals behind it and, at local level, better prepared to identify it, and address it, when it occurs in their own area”.