It’s a bright, clear midweek morning with hardly a cloud in the sky.
On the M5 motorway, motorists in cars, vans and lorries are immersed in the rolling Devon countryside that surrounds them as they make up the fast flow of traffic, while blissfully unaware what hangs over them.
Not far away, perched 160ft above sea level on the remote edge of the Blackdown Hills, a specially-trained police officer is monitoring passing vehicles, not with the naked eye, but with a £30,000 hi-tech drone.
Piloted with a handheld remote control pad, big enough to make a games console player envious, PC Carl Thomas has positioned the four-propeller-powered drone 107 metres above the motorway, capturing footage of the traffic coming north.
The camera is so good that the former firearms officer can read number plates from up to two kilometres away.
“We are the eye in the sky,” says his colleague and fellow pilot, PC Tim Brooks, with a smile.
The pair are one of three drone teams at Devon and Cornwall Police, the first force in the country to set up a dedicated unit, that are called on assist on all kinds of incidents; from missing persons to police chases to even animal rescues.
But today, on the first Wednesday of autumn, they are teaming up with officers on the ground to tackle organised criminal gangs who have been targeting farms to steal equipment including machinery, tractors and quad bikes.
It is a serious issue in Devon and Cornwall, where the combined cost of claims from rural crime shot up 60 per cent to £1.6m in 2024 from the year before, according to NFU Mutual data shared with The Independent.
Force intelligence shows some offenders are transporting stolen goods to ports to ship abroad, transporting them on motorways in open-top livestock lorries to avoid detection from roadside units.
Some make their way to eastern Europe, where the sanctions from the Ukraine war make a thriving black market for the machinery.
“While motorists drive along, they will have no idea we’re looking down on the M5 with a bird’s eye view, checking the tops of high-sided vehicles that are maybe carrying stolen plant machinery,” says PC Brooks.
“When we pick up something below that looks suspicious, the ground units will find the vehicle and pull it over for further inspection.”
From the small clearing, the two police officers operate from an unmarked van which is kitted up inside with three large screens, each one showing a different angle of view from the drone overhead.
“Is that okay?,” PC Brooks asks the motorway-side police units, as the drone is positioned to view northbound traffic, with live footage shared for all officers to see.
“Ok, good, let’s go,” the officer down below responds.
Devon and Cornwall Police proudly states it pioneered the use of drones in policing, having started using the technology in 2015. Its drone team even has a dedicated social media page in which it shares footage of its successes.
But it’s a tool that is required. For a force covering vast areas of countryside, and faced with the financial constraints as others across the country, the drone team’s part in policing is becoming ever important, particularly considering rural crime cost farms in the UK £44m last year, according to NFU Mutual.
Agricultural vehicle theft made up £7m of the loss, including £2.7m worth of quad bike and all-terrain vehicles, and £1.5m worth of tractor thefts.
And with four dedicated officers and a sergeant on the force’s rural affairs team, bosses say the use of drones is key to stopping the movement of the stolen items out of the county, and even country.
“Unfortunately we are are seeing organised criminals gangs come into our force area and they are targeting isolated geographic locations, stealing portable assets such as trailers, quad bikes and even tractors,” says PC Clarke Orchard, lead of the rural affairs team, who is stationed at Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency weighbridge near Tiverton during the operation..
“Invariably that [stolen goods] will be shipped out to eastern Europe. We’ve got the unfortunate invasion of Ukraine and, with the sanctions imposed over there, there’s an obvious demand for machinery and I would suggest that theft may continue to rise.
“The assets are very expensive. This theft is low risk, high reward for organised criminal gangs sourcing this equipment.”
He adds: “It’s being discreetly hidden in things like containers, so it’s difficult for use to see, that’s why days like this with the drones team are so important.”
At the weighbridge, PC Orchard has assembled a team of police officers, as well as officials from the local council’s trading standards and the Environment Agency for the day’s action, named Operation Ragwort.
As morning progresses, a 4×4 towing a trailer with livestock is pulled in, with officers checking the trailer is not stolen, while the welfare of the sheep, and their passports, are looked at.
And as with any crime operation, unrelated offences are picked up.
A rental van carrying computer units bought from schools comes up above the 3.5 tonne limit for driving on the motorway, while at a nearby roadside check on the A373, a motorist is found to be driving in a car without an MOT.
Asked if his team was winning the battle against rural crime, PC Orchard says: “I’d like to think we’re trying our best as proven by today.”
