Police pre-Christmas crime crackdown vow
LANCASHIRE police have launched a pre-Christmas campaign to fight crimes including drink-driving and cash machine thefts.
Operation Sorbus, led by the force’s Tactical Operations team, will also target cash-in-transit robberies and burglaries where expensive or highpowered vehicles are stolen from homes.
The campaign, which continues until the end of this month, is aimed at detecting and preventing serious crime.
As part of Operation Sorbus, officers will be carrying out stop-checks across the county every day to identify drink and drug drivers, as well as to check on vehicles linked to criminal activity.
The force will also support deliveries to cash machines to prevent robberies and attempt to prevent thefts of ATM machines by giving security advice to business and using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) to intercept vehicles linked to organised crime groups.
Armed officers and advanced unarmed drivers will also be deployed along the county borders as part of patrols designed to prevent high-powered vehicles stolen in Lancashire being taken to Greater Manchester.
Lancashire police’s operations manager, Supt Julian Platt, said: “These crimes affect businesses, the general public and home owners. They can have a devastating impact on their victims and leave them extremely vulnerable.
“Ahead of Christmas, these types of offences increase and in turn we are increasing our activity to tackle these crimes.
“We want to help deter and detect this criminal activity and bring these offenders to justice.”
Supt Platt added: “We are determined to prevent and tackle these crimes.
“Our message to those planning on carrying out these offences – whether it be cash-in-transit robberies, ATM thefts, thefts of vehicles or drink or drug driving is clear - we will find you and we will make sure, particular for serious offences, you spend this Christmas and many more to come behind bars away from your family and loved ones.
“We understand some of the stop checks might be an inconvenience but we would urge you to be patient while we conduct our operation.
“We are committed to cracking down on criminals who make the lives of people a misery and we will continue to use all the powers available to us to target these criminals, prevent offences and bring those responsible to justice.”
Police are asking the public to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity in the run-up to Christmas by calling police on 101, or to Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111. In an emergency, call 999.