IPMBA News

Police get on their bikes to beat burglars

First published Friday 5 September 2014 in News by Mark Stanford, Telegraph & Argus Reporter

Photo:  Superintendent Pat Casserly (centre) who is leading the new operation for plain clothed police officers tackling burglary on bikes

PLAIN clothed police officers will be getting on bikes in Bradford in the latest bid to tackle burglary.

Officers in the Specialist Operations Department will get back in the saddle and patrol suburban areas in Bradford, Leeds and other sections of West Yorkshire on bicycles in their latest covert move to slash domestic burglary.

The teams of officers will use bikes which have previously been recovered by police as suspected stolen property, and have until this point remained unused in police storage, as officers have been unable to trace their rightful owners.

The move is part of West Yorkshire Police's Viper scheme, which aims to target the county's most prolific burglars by using a host of techniques including crime profiling, intelligence systems to make sure officers can make arrests.

Incidents of burglary have been slashed by 920 offences with more than 1,000 less victims recorded since April this year, compared to the same period last year.

West Yorkshire Police will also be using all of its operational vehicles this weekend as part of the Viper led anti-burglary task force. Officers say this move, also used earlier this year, has led to a number of additional arrests.
During six intensive operations, more than 200 people have been arrested by the Viper team for a host of offences including burglary and drugs supply. A total of 20 stolen vehicles were also recovered.

Superintendent Pat Casserly, who is leading the operation, said: "This activity is about supporting the work of our uniformed neighbourhood-based colleagues and just putting a seed of doubt in the mind of those who actively prey, often on their own communities, by trying to gain access to homes by trying doors and looking to get through open windows.

"The beauty of this operation is not just the simplicity of the initiative, but that officers will work in conjunction with colleagues in performance cars to call them in when we don't want to blow the covert bikes.

"Our Viper operations have been extremely successful in terms of tackling burglary and the latest tactic we are employing is about getting officers into neighbourhoods who can blend in with local people and target those who are looking to commit crime.

"Under Viper, we look to work in innovative ways to exploit any opportunity we have to tackle burglary and having officers in plain clothes and on borrowed bikes that would otherwise be sat in a police store room provides us with a platform to observe and then target those looking to commit crime.

"Criminals had been pedalling misery into the homes of families before we started Viper last year, but with this added tactic, we can make it harder still for burglars to operate."

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