Matthew Scott on the scourge of heritage crime in Kent

Kent's police and crime commissioner Matthew Scott discusses the issue of heritage crime and how police are trying to get on top of it.

Transcript

00:00Our heritage is really important because it's the history of our county. These are things which are

00:06important to our heritage, our culture, our history and to steal or to damage it

00:14is exceptionally harmful because some of these things just could not be replaced. So it's really

00:19important like we are doing in Kent to respond to heritage crime seriously so that people can

00:26have faith that our heritage is being protected. And Kent Police's response is to, with regards to

00:32heritage crime, a lot of it is burglary and thefts. They attend every single burglary. They will look

00:37for forensic opportunities. They do things like property marking with different businesses and

00:42venues to make sure that we are taking as many steps as we possibly can to try and prevent crime

00:47from happening in the first place. And there is a Heritage Watch network that you can join in Kent

00:54if this is something that people are interested in, which includes organisations like

01:01Historic England and Kent Police and others. So we are taking this seriously and it's important

01:06that we respond seriously so that perpetrators know that we are going to be on their case,

01:13but also that the victims get confidence that the police is acting in their best interest.