Lincolnshire Police have taken on 10 Ford Kugas modified and supplied by Cartwright Conversions.

The new vehicles are to join Lincolnshire Police’s rural crime unit and have been fitted with a bespoke dash panel, electrical control panel and an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera screen.

Alongside the emergency lighting package and warning system, Cartwright installers have fitted an RSG data logging system which will track the vehicles’ activity.

Cartwright Conversions specialises in the design and build of vehicles for the emergency services and mobility sector.

Hare coursing is one of the rural crimes that officers across the county hope to target with the help of these new vehicles. The pursuit of hares using dogs is popular at this time of year when Lincolnshire’s flat landscape has been cleared of crops after the harvest.

Nigel Coupe, Lincolnshire Police fleet manager, said: “These vehicles will give us more flexibility to tackle crime and will help improve our response to incidents.

“Our officers will be able to go where they previously couldn’t in a police car – such as into a crop field to find where a stolen vehicle has been hidden or to pursue a hare courser trying to make an escape using an off-road track.

“Attempting this in a police car would cause significant damage to the vehicle so previously our officers have had to accept lifts from farmers or traipse through fields on foot to reach a crime scene.”