550 in co-ordinated crackdown
Thursday, 26 February, 2009
Lancashire Constabulary joined forces with officers from across the North West in a major crackdown on people using the transport system to commit crime.
More than 550 officers from Lancashire Constabulary, Merseyside Police,North Wales Police, Cheshire Constabulary, British Transport Police, Mersey Tunnels Police, the Port of Liverpool Police and the North West Motorway Policing Group worked together on a coordinated strike against criminals using the region's roads, ports, railways and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Officers used Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to detect criminals who used the roads to carry out acquisitive crime including burglary, theft and car crime.
Metal-detecting safety arches were also used at ports and bus and railway stations across the region to stop criminals who were carrying weapons. Officers also had metal-detecting gloves
and wands to check that passengers were not armed.
Stop checks were also carried out on boats, which use the Port of Liverpool as police targeted those carrying controlled drugs and weapons. This high visibility operation ensures that criminals and would-be offenders feel the strong arm of the law across the region.
Inspector Mark Porter, who lead the operation for Lancashire Constabulary, said: "This operation was about targeting criminals by disrupting and restricting their means of travel, that way we were effectively reducing their ability to commit crime."
