Tough tactics see more criminals caught in latest clampdown Police bring bike thieves down to earth
Police are committing to more pursuits and ‘tactical contacts’
Operation Venice, the Metropolitan Police crackdown on the scooter crime wave, is starting to have a positive effect with officers even celebrating success on social media. The Roads and Transport team have been pointing out their successes on Twitter, posting how they used ‘tactical contact’ to end a pursuit after the riders thought taking off their helmets would stop the chase. Many of those arrested have been found to have committed other crimes such as drug offences. Operation Venice has now expanded to include violent crimes and robberies involving mopeds, with officers arresting three men aged between 16 and 17 after recovering a stolen moped, bank cards and a machete. The successes have been echoed in the courtroom too as Jamie Farrell, one of the men involved in the infamous moped smash and grab on an Oxford Street jewellers, has been jailed for eight years. Moped related crime has fallen since May, which the Met put down to pro-active pursuits and successful convictions. However this comes on the back of news that some moped riders are exploring new ways to find lucrative targets.
On Monday, July 9, moped muggers rode into the beer garden of a pub in Islington, before the pillion passenger brandished an 8in knife and stole a patron’s watch. Three weeks earlier, two men on a stolen scooter stole a cash delivery box from a Sainsburys in Chingford, in broad daylight.
Detective Inspector Steve Brownlee, of the Met’s Operation Venice team, said: “The Police are working hard to keep members of the public safe and to make the streets hostile territory for criminals who steal scooters, mopeds and motorbikes and then use them to snatch valuables from members of the public.”
‘The Police are working hard to keep people safe’