Alan Stewart works with Tayside Police and is one of this country’s leading wildlife detectives. His new book, The Thin Green Line, surveys the scale of wildlife crime across the UK today, and here he reflects on the situation in Scotland
“Hello, is that the police?” “That’s correct, can I help you?”
“Hopefully you can. I’d like to report that I think a man is taking freshwater pearl mussels from our river.”
Alternatively, the caller might say, “I’d like to report that I’ve seen a man circling bottlenose dolphins in the Moray Firth and disturbing them.” The location could just as easily be Oban Bay, or the river estuary off Montrose or a host of other places around Scotland’s coastline. Equally, the caller might report that, “...a building with a brown long-eared bat roost is about to be demolished,” or, “...a pet shop is selling Hermann’s tortoises and the shop worker said that the owner didn’t have Article 10 certificates for them.” Two decades ago, there’s little doubt that the caller would have come off the phone annoyed, frustrated and wondering who on earth does have the responsibility to deal with these offences. The answer, of course, is that it’s always been the responsibility of the police. Having said that, it’s only recently – in the last decade or so – that a small group of officers from the eight Scottish police forces has gained the level of knowledge and expertise to make sure that they can deal competently with this highly specialised area of policing. At the same time, the level of experience in prosecuting wildlife crime has similarly grown. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service now have 15 specialist wildlife prosecutors, who train alongside wildlife crime police officers to the benefit of all. There are now around 90 wildlife crime police officers in Scotland, with the vast majority of forces now having at least one full-time post. Importantly, they have a wide range of experts on whom they can call for specialist advice, depending on the species involved. The police, working with partners, have also realised that certain species at high conservation risk from criminals need some extra policing effort. This realisation in 2005 gave rise to a group called the Wildlife Law Enforcement Working Group (WLEWG).
www.snh.gov.uk
1
Birds of prey continue to be persecuted in Scotland. This female golden eagle was shot near Peebles in 2007. It was one of the only breeding pair in the region .
2
It’s illegal to catch freshwater mussels to look for any pearls they may contain.
2
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