‘Ring of steel’ in Hyndburn police blitz

9:20pm Wednesday 22nd October 2008

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MORE than 20 known criminals were confronted by police in a crime prevention blitz.

A ‘ring of steel’ was formed around Great Harwood, Rishton and Clayton-le-Moors wih officers visiting the towns’ most notorious criminals to tell them they were monitoring their behaviour.

Officers also raided a suspected drugs factory, targeted vehicle crime and were out in force in each of the towns.

Yesterday’s blitz was carried out under Operation Titan which uses officers who would otherwise be tied up with paperwork in different parts of the county to get back on the streets and focus on areas undergoing specific problems.

A 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis, abstracting electricity and possession of a class A drug following a raid in Albert Street, Clayton-le-Moors, where 66 cannabis plants were found.

Officers later arrested a 15-year-old boy for theft and criminal damage in St Hubert’s Road, Great Harwood.

Whilst other officers visited known criminals in a bid to stop them committing crime - 12 were visited in Clayton-le-Moors, seven in Great Harwood and six in Rishton.

Police also used Automatic Number Place Recognition systems to target travelling criminals.

Sgt Stuart Banks, who led the operation said: “It has been a successful operation, we have two people under arrest, one on drugs offences and one for theft and criminal damage.

“We targeted criminals in the area and criminals travelling to the area in effect we created a ring of steel whilst the operation was ongoing.

“We will analyse the results with a view to carry out other initiatives in the near future.

“We want to sent a strong message that we will not tolerate anyone who commits crime in the area and we want to reduce the fear of crime for residents.”