Seven days of intensive activity as part of Operation Hawk has seen 21 people arrested across North Yorkshire thanks to live-time ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) intelligence.
North Yorkshire Police’s two Road Crime Teams joined forces with Neighbourhood Support Teams and other specialist resources to disrupt travelling criminals.
- From Monday 7 September through to Monday 14 September 2015
- Officers took part in the latest in a series of operations to tackle cross-border criminality.
The force’s new ANPR Hub co-ordinated and controlled resources on a daily basis, using live-time ANPR notifications as well the latest intelligence to target suspicious individuals and vehicles.
In just seven days, officers working on Operation Hawk made 21 arrests and seized nine vehicles. In addition, 22 vehicles were searched, 37 people searched and 11 people issued with fixed penalty notices or reported for summons.
The arrests included:
- The arrest of a man in the Acomb area of York on suspicion of drug dealing and burglary, having been stopped in a vehicle in possession of a significant amount of cannabis, cash and stolen property
- The pursuit of a BMW car on the A168 near to Thirsk resulting in the vehicle being seized and the driver dealt with for dangerous driving and fail to stop
- Three men arrested for dealing class A drugs in the Scarborough area following a stop and search of a vehicle and its occupants
- Stop check of a vehicle on the A19 south of Selby, during which items of stolen clothing and a significant quantity of drugs were found within the vehicle. Two occupants were arrested on suspicion of theft and possession with intent to supply drugs
- Deployment to a burglary in progress at a commercial premises in the Bishopthorpe Road area of York. A man was found within the property and arrested on suspicion of burglary
- Vehicle stopped in the Selby area having been sighted driving erratically. The vehicle and occupants were searched and a loaded firearm and ammunition was found. Further property searches revealed stolen property and a quantity of drugs. In total six people were arrested for firearms, theft and drugs offences.
Officers attended the Fairburn area of the Selby district, where a car made off and the occupant was seen to throw items from within. The vehicle was stopped and a quantity of class A drugs was found. A man was arrested on suspicion of drug dealing. - A vehicle was stopped on the A19 near York and the two occupants arrested for breach of bail conditions that were imposed by Harrogate Magistrates Court for damage and assault offences.
- Two men were arrested in a vehicle on the A64 between Tadcaster and York when a significant amount of cannabis was found in the vehicle’s boot.
Assistant Chief Constable Paul Kennedy, who is the national lead for ANPR for the National Police Chief’s Council, said:
Operation Hawk is designed to clamp down on travelling criminals by actively targeting them and disrupting their activity. Our policing teams do this every day of the week, but these ‘weeks of action’ allow us to concentrate specialist resources and effort in particular locations.
ANPR capability is vital to continue to secure North Yorkshire’s status as the safest place in England, and thanks to our £1m investment in ANPR, criminals should take note that they are now more likely than ever before to be caught here.
North Yorkshire residents can be confident that Operation Hawk will continue to ramp up the pressure on those who come to here intent on preying on our communities. My message to travelling criminals is a simple one: expect to be caught. If we don’t arrest you here, we will not hesitate to track you down and arrest you at home, wherever that may be.
North Yorkshire Police’s ANPR Hub, based in the Force Control Room, opened earlier this year. Dedicated staff monitor and assess real-time information relating to vehicles identified as being connected to criminality, building up intelligence about their movements.
ANPR works by reading the registration number of a vehicle, and after checking the number against a database of information, will issue an alert if the vehicle is linked to criminality. It is used by police to prevent and detect crime, as part of ongoing investigations, post-incident investigations, as well as helping in the search for vulnerable missing people, wanted criminals, and to target uninsured and untaxed vehicles.
