Hare Coursing
Date of request: 16 April 2026
Reference: 15502448
Request
Please could you send me the figures of how many reports of hare coursing you received during the periods:
1 April 2025 – 31 Mar 2026?
1 April 2024 – 31 Mar 2025?
1 April 2023 – 31 Mar 2024?
I have already been advised by the press office that incidents could be categorised as either hare coursing, poaching, or lamping, and there were about 121 such indicidents in 2025-6. I would like the figures for all three years and if possible, for the search to look more closely and filter out incidents that were definitely not hare coursing.
Response
You have requested information relating to ‘hare coursing’. As there is no specific way of recording ‘hare coursing’ within our incident reporting database (STORM), we have conducted a text search in order to facilitate your request.
While we have provided this information as requested, please note that results based on key word searches can be misleading and the data they produce do not constitute a reliable basis from which to draw wider conclusions. This is because the terms may appear within the STORM record for any number of reasons, regardless of how relevant they are to the incident itself. Equally, incidents that may in fact be related to the subject of a request would not be included in results if the specific search terms were not recorded.
With this caveat in mind, please see the information below.
Avon and Somerset police have searched STORM (System for Tasking and Operational Resource Management), the Force Command and Control system, between 01 April 2023 and 31 March 2026 for the phrase ‘hare coursing’. We have identified the following information:
| Final incident Group | 1 April 2023 – 31 Mar 2024 | 1 April 2024 – 31 Mar 2025 | 1 April 2025 – 31 Mar 2026 | Sum: |
| ASB | 20 | 16 | 30 | 66 |
| CRIME | 13 | 5 | 12 | 30 |
| GENERAL | 3 | 3 | 8 | 14 |
| PUBLIC SAFETY/WELFARE | 23 | 23 | 40 | 86 |
| TRANSPORT | 1 | 4 | 4 | 9 |
| BLANK | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sum: | 60 | 51 | 95 | 206 |