BASC funds national police training to combat poaching
The development of a cutting-edge digital training academy will be boosted by a £40,000 cash injection from BASC via its Legacy Fund.
- - Features
- - Features
Why BASC’s investment in bird of prey crime training matters
Illegal killing of birds of prey remains a UK national wildlife crime priority and has been for several years. Chief Inspector Kevin Lacks-Kelly, head of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit, outlines his hopes that a partnership with BASC will help boost the ability to investigate, prosecute and convict those responsible.
Crimes against birds of prey are difficult to investigate, hard to prosecute, and do real damage to public confidence in how seriously we take wildlife law. So, when BASC’s Legacy Fund came forward with £20,000 to help us build an independent and dedicated bird of prey crime course for the National Wildlife Crime Unit’s Digital Training Academy, it wasn’t just welcome – it was exactly the kind of partnership and commitment that work in this field needs.
I know some people will find that pairing surprising, but we really shouldn’t. BASC represents shooting and conservation interests, and bird of prey crime is too often framed from the outside as an “us versus them” issue, with the policing of these crimes seemingly thrown into an echo chamber of conversations around the issue.
A partnership worth paying attention to
That framing doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, as BASC is one of the longest standing police partners for wildlife and rural crime. BASC has now backed the Digital Training Academy twice, first with £40,000 for our poaching and hare coursing syllabus and now with this investment in bird of prey crime training. That’s £60,000 from a shooting organisation, specifically to help police catch people who kill birds of prey. If you care about wildlife crime being taken seriously, that’s a partnership worth paying attention to. I have policed this area for over 23 years and BASC is by far the front runner to be the voice of us who have an interest in shooting.
The Digital Training Academy is our online learning platform for police officers and some enforcement partners across the UK. Wildlife crime training has always run up against the same problem: limited specialist resource, competing operational priorities, and the cost and logistics of getting officers into a room for in-person courses. The Academy strips that back. Officers log in through the NWCU training portal and work through accredited modules at their own pace. No travel budgets, no backfill headaches, no waiting for the next scheduled course date – it reinvests policing hours back into the communities that need us.
That matters because bird of prey crime is a genuinely specialist area of policing. It’s not enough for an officer to know that raptors are protected; they need to understand how these offences are actually committed, what evidence looks like, how to work with wildlife forensics and experts to interrogate evidence and how to evidence a crime that stands up in court. Get that wrong at the first response and you can lose a prosecution before it’s even started.
This new course, expected to roll out through the Academy in the coming weeks, is built to close exactly that gap by giving officers and staff across every force consistent, high-quality training in bird of prey crime investigations, sitting alongside our existing poaching and hare coursing, illegal hunting, and badger crime, Invasive Non Native Species (INNS) and CITES modules.
Moving the needle
I’d also point out what this represents beyond the training itself. BASC’s Glynn Evans put it well when he said wildlife crime has no place in the countryside and that everyone with an interest in conservation has a responsibility to help tackle it. I’d go further – partnerships like this are how we move the needle. The NWCU can set priorities and coordinate the national response, but we don’t have unlimited resources and we rely on organisations who understand rural life and are willing to back practical measures and show their support, not just say it. BASC has done that twice now and it’s raising the profile of wildlife crime in exactly the way we need, not through statements, but through delivering on commitments.
There’s more work ahead. Bird of prey crime remains stubbornly persistent, and training is one part of a wider effort that includes intelligence, partnership working, understanding who commits the crimes and being bold enough to challenge. This work is reflected through the Bird of Prey Crime Delivery Group and other channels. But better-trained officers mean better first responses, stronger evidence and more cases that result in genuine accountability. That is why I’m grateful to BASC.
Share
Kevin Lacks-Kelly
Chief Inspector Kevin Lacks-Kelly is head of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit.
Government’s decision unnecessary and an erosion of civil liberties, says BASC
BASC has criticised the government’s decision to grant police automatic powers of entry into the homes of firearms certificate holders.
BASC works with PSNI and Baronscourt Estate over aggravated trespass and poaching
PSNI officers joined BASC and Baronscourt Estate to discuss concerns about deer poaching and aggravated trespass in County Tyrone.