These eyes will be watching you in rural North Herts - reminding those thinking of fly-tipping that if you do so, you could face consequences.
Fly-tipping causes unsightly waste dumped in sometimes potentially dangerous places along our country lanes - with areas like Barley, Therfield, Kelshall and the rural Hitchin area repeatedly targeted.
Sgt Jon Vine has spoken about the pilot scheme which has started in Royston Rural over the weekend and will soon be heading over to Rural Hitchin South. The posters warn fly-tippers they could be being watched by covert cameras. The work is in collaboration with the National Farmers' Union.
He said: "We are running a pilot project funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner - it's a pilot to see if we can reduce the incidents of fly-tipping across North Herts.
"It's an issue everywhere, I don't think we get it worse in North Herts than anywhere else but one incident is too many so we want to reduce it as much as possible.
"We want to support the landowners as well because its them who pay for the clear up if it's on their land. It's a cost to the public and to the landowners, which we want to avoid.
"It is a crime, and a lot of the waste is often not particularly pleasant. It is frustrating for us, it's in such isolated areas the chance of a police car passing on patrol is minimal so we need to look at modern techniques.
"Installing technical surveillance is something we are able to do. We've used the same style of sign that we do in areas where we get high shoplifting rates and they are effective.
"This is a new idea and we want to put it out there and show people we are tackling fly-tipping and this type of crime. While we can't be there physically, we are aware and the signs are designed to be massively impactive. They're big for a reason - we want to catch people's attention."
Rosalind David, the National Farmers Union's county adviser for Hertfordshire, said “Farmers and Landowners across the county have to pick up the bill when it comes to clearing up fly tips left on their land.
"On average it costs about £750 to clear up a medium sized load of fly tipped waste, more should there be hazardous materials such as asbestos or car tyres. It is fantastic to work alongside partners such as the police to look at innovative ways to proactively prevent this crime and stop this blight on our beautiful countryside.”
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