With less people, activity and cameras in the countryside and rural communities than there are in towns and cities, it’s really important that the ‘that’s a bit odd’ and the ‘somethings not right with that’ get reported.
The Rural Crime Teams of both the constabularies that EMP work with refer to these nuggets of information as ‘jigsaw pieces’.
A walker or runner or commuter or ranger might unknowingly have the missing piece to what might be a very significant jigsaw in their phone photos or on their dashcam.
A relatively small incident with a fire that some of the ranger team were involved with on Saturday night gnawed away at me a little bit, and i spent an hour early on Sunday collating what we had on phones and dashcams and sending it in to a rural crime team.
My hunch was right.
Jigsaw pieces. Important ones.
I should do this rangering thing more often. I could be like the Edward Woodward of the moors ….