POLICE are powerless to act on crime committed at unauthorised traveller camps unless they have the evidence to prove it, according to Surrey’s police and crime commissioner.

David Munro said officers shared the view of residents but could not always act on intelligence about illegal activity.

This year saw an “unprecedented number” of illegal incursions on land in the county. But Mr Munro warned there was a difficult line to distinguish between crime and anti-social behaviour.

He said: “People expect an arrest and charge just as they would for any other crime. But on the ground the police need the evidence and it’s very difficult to get that.”

He added: “I’m fully aware that a lot of residents are very upset by what they see as crime being committed. And some are [crimes]. Police do share their view.”

But he stressed sometimes it was anti-social behaviour and not actual crime being committed.

He said it was hard for police to act on many reports as they needed evidence, and gave the example about a padlock being broken to gain access to land through a gate which Mr Munro said was hard to follow up without anyone seeing this happen.

He said: “Many reports say a group of travellers smashed open a gate and they are now on a particular site so they must have caused criminal damage.

“But no one saw that happen. If there is no evidence to charge and put before a magistrate, we cannot charge all 20 of them in the likelihood one of them did it.”

He urged residents that if they see a crime happening they need to get times and any video or photos, adding: “Typically, the first time we know about an encampment is when they are already there.”

The illegal camps have been the biggest source of social tension this year, the commissioner said. He added many reports were not a “police problem” because they did not involve crime, which raised the question about the difference between anti-social behaviour and crime.

Mr Munro said: “Many reports from the residents are not police matters because they don’t involve crime.”

His comments were made at Surrey’s police and crime panel on Wednesday, September 19.

Mr Munro has been pushing for Surrey’s council leaders to set aside land to act as a transit site which can hold travellers for a certain number of days.

The neighbouring county of Sussex has three and Mr Munro said they now received a third of all Surrey’s number of incursions.

He said the sites would give police officers the power to direct travellers to where they are, adding that transit sites were a “powerful deterrent to come over and cause mayhem”.

Mr Munro has also met with members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community and stressed not all camps led to problems for residents and that not all travellers committed crimes.