As part of a national operation into poaching, the Echo was invited to join the Dorset Police's Rural Crime Team in Blandford and witnessed officers in action as they 'hunted the hunters'.
Communities and farmers in rural Dorset have voiced their concerns about hare coursing.
Determined to tackle the issue, Dorset Police held an evening operation focused upon catching and deterring anyone involved with poaching.
After a cup of coffee and a chat with Sgt Natalie Skinner, my chaperone for the evening, we headed out.
Not before I was passed a stab vest though, and at this point I wondered what I had got myself into.
As we drove out around the Blandford area, it was explained to me that a recently suspected poacher had catapults seized from them, so having the vest did make me feel safer.
With darkness setting in, I started to listen to the radio chatter coming through.
Officers back at the station were monitoring Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras dotted around the county, allowing the patrols to react to vehicles picked up as being involved with poaching.
But, it was not just the cameras doing the spotting, Sgt Skinner was also scanning the roads as we drove around, looking for any suspicious behaviour.
Soon, something caught her eye, and we had turned the car around and sped off down the road from where we had just come.
A 4x4 that looked like the type of car a potential poacher would use had been seen driving the other way and Sgt Skinner wanted to check it out.
After catching up with the vehicle, the blue lights came on, and we pulled it over. I thought ‘could this be our first encounter with a poacher tonight?’.
As it turns out, the owner of the vehicle was simply driving home, but Sgt Skinner explained dutifully why she had stopped them and what her and her team were up to.
In fact, the driver seemed pleased to know that the police were out patrolling and fighting crime in rural areas.
After the rush of our first ‘chase,’ I got back to asking Sgt Skinner about poaching and she talked about some previous cases they had worked on.
The recent theft of two pygmy goats from west Dorset, Margoat and Robbie, became the topic of our conversation - a story I had reported on myself.
As we weaved our way through the county's back roads, a truck approached us with an unusual set of headlights.
Instantly this alerted Sgt Skinner, who put on the blue lights and stopped the car.
It was just a local farmer, but he was more than happy to talk about the things he had seen in the area and provided some crucial intelligence for officers to use.
I realised that even though we had not found any evidence of poaching, it was a real concern for those living in these communities, and it was a big reassurance for residents to see officers patrolling the area.
By this point we had been out for three hours, and there had been nothing much to report back to base, however, just as we got back to the station, a call came over the radio.
A car that is well known to the team had been spotted nearby, in fact, it was the same car Sgt Skinner had confiscated catapults from previously.
Everyone got into gear and headed out, different teams going in different directions trying to catch up with the car.
Sgt Skinner decided to head to a location she had previously seen the car, and close to an area the farmer from earlier had talked about.
We were now well and truly off the beaten track, driving down what I can only describe as a mud track – we were now deep into rural Dorset.
However, after coming to a dead end, Sgt Skinner realised we may not find anyone tonight.
As we made our way back, another vehicle was spotted, and it was heading our way.
The radio was full of chatter as officers coordinated their response. A patrol car caught up to the small van as we waited patiently at a junction a few miles up ahead.
'Could this be the one?' I asked myself. 'Are we about to catch a poacher?'
We pull out just ahead of the van and sandwich the suspect between two patrol cars and pull the vehicle over.
Whilst the driver was known for previous involvement with poaching, on this occasion he was taking his girlfriend home and police had a quick chat and let him on his way.
As Sgt Skinner returned to our patrol car, I asked if it was frustrating to spend all this time out and catch nobody.
Whilst she admitted it was, she reminded me that the whole point is to prevent any crime from happening in the first place, and by pulling these people over, it acts as a strong deterrent.
In total, the operation stopped 20 vehicles throughout the evening, and processed two traffic offences, one for no insurance and another for an unsafe load.
There were also nine intelligence reports which all adds to building a bigger picture of how the criminals are working in the area.
One thing that is for sure is that patrols like these are helping to keep rural communities safer.
Whilst we saw no incidents of poaching, watching the operation play out was fascinating. This is what the rural crime team do everyday - just tonight they had a few extra bodies to help out.
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