THE people of the Dengie have “completely lost faith” in Essex Police, a council meeting heard.

Maldon District Council’s Crime and Disorder Committee held a meeting last week with the Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex Roger Hirst and Chief Inspector of Essex Police Ronnie Egan to discuss the police’s performance for the past year.

At the meeting on Tuesday, Mrs Egan, Maldon’s district commander, admitted she was “disappointed” in the 31 per cent rise in home burglaries in the district last year.

Some victims of crime have said they no longer bother reporting it to police, something the force insisted was crucial.

Richard Dewick, district councillor for Tillingham, said: “I feel residents of the Dengie marshes have lost all confidence in the police. People I’ve talked to say when they called police about a burglary or issues of hare coursing, the force just doesn’t want to know. They simply don’t bother to call any more when it happens.

“This confidence and strong rapport needs to be rekindled, as it’s only a matter of time before people start tackling crime with their own hands.

“Having seen this happen before, they can turn violent very quickly.”

Mrs Egan said Operation Galileo was helping to tackle hare coursing while Operation Insight helped officers identify patterns of crime and rural hotspots.

She said: “I am sorry to hear of people’s poor experiences with some of our teams. The issue of rural police presence is something we are working as hard as we can to tackle it. I would still encourage every victim of any crime to report it to us. The more information we get, the more we can do about it.”

Mr Hirst insisted his new crime plan would address issues.

He added: “I am pushing for officers to be more mobile and reaching the areas further away from the station.

“With the improved technology at our disposal – including our new drone – I am very confident this can work and enable more officers to more regularly patrol rural areas, reaching all residents.”

Deputy council leader Mark Durham called on officers to spend more time on social media after many crime victims posted CCTV on Facebook and Twitter.

He said: “Given the increased frequency of farms and buildings being attacked by criminals, more and more property owners are buying CCTV.

“There could be huge gain in monitoring social media to get these leads as more people are sharing them district wide.”

But Mr Hirst replied: “Essex Police is one of the most tightly funded forces in the country. We would not have the resources to have someone monitoring social media all day every day.

“People must realise that putting posts on social media is not reporting a crime.”