Someone please explain this to me . . .

. . . why, exactly, would a police force require an officially-badged tractor? Complete with lights and siren?




It seems the police in Lincolnshire, England, have such a need. The Daily Mail reports:

With a top speed of 25mph, it would hardly be the wheels of choice for a ... detective and would be hard-pressed to catch anything – let alone a getaway car.

Even so, Lincolnshire Police hope this five-ton tractor could help bring criminals to justice.

The John Deere 6630, complete with distinctive blue and yellow livery, is being used for Operation Fusion, the force’s initiative against rural crime.

It will appear at agricultural shows to encourage farmers to ‘tag’ their own tractors with Smartwater, a liquid produced in unique batches that can be seen under UV light to identify the owner.

With a whopping price tag of £50,000, not including the custom paint job, the force can count itself lucky that it is being loaned the tractor by the manufacturer.

The tractor has been kitted out with a flashing blue light, police stripes and badges. The force will have to pay its running costs.

. . .

The cost of altering the vehicle’s standard green livery was paid for by the National Farmers Union following a year in which the value of tractor thefts soared as many were stolen to order for delivery to Eastern Europe and Russia.

More than 2,000 tractors worth £42million were stolen last year, up by a third on 2008.

An NFU spokesman said: ‘Tractors and farm implements seem to be at the top of thieves’ shopping lists at the moment, so NFU is delighted to support Lincolnshire Police in its drive to make farmers aware of how they can better protect their farms.’

There's more at the link.

I can see it serving as a sort of mobile advertisement for tractor security measures; but why kit it out with a siren and lights? Are they intended to warn scarecrows to get out of the way as it chugs sedately across a plowed field in pursuit of tractornappers? Or, perhaps, to warn overtaking traffic to give way to a slow cop?

As the Daily Mail's cartoonist, Pugh, summed it up:







Peter