Possible Clues:

• Wood works in church
• Piece of managed woodland
• Brush with police reported
• Coppice
• Bit of woodland
• Police finally leave small wood
• Area with trees where police heard?
• Manage with spades inside wood
• By the sound of it, would sound like the police (5)
• A few chestnuts, perhaps, as clues offering perplexed solver entry, initially