The neighbourhood policing team in Windsor and Maidenhead has completed a two-day crackdown on car crime in the Royal Borough.
Operation Lockdown, which ran from 6pm to about 4am on Wednesday and Thursday nights (24 and 25/2), involved about 20 Windsor and Maidenhead neighbourhood officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) carrying out high visibility patrols and offering crime prevention advice at various locations across the Royal Borough.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) equipment was also used to target criminals travelling by vehicle.
Officers concentrated their efforts in hotspot areas, such as Furze Platt and Riverside and Belmont in Maidenhead, and Dedworth in Windsor.
Insp Mark Millward, community safety inspector for Windsor and Maidenhead, said: “Operation Lockdown appears to have been a success, with only one theft from a motor vehicle reported across the whole borough on Wednesday night and five on Thursday, only one of which was in a targeted area. We’ve been seeing an average of between five to ten thefts from motor vehicles per day in recent weeks, so this is good news.
“Earlier on in the evenings, the main aim was to identify potential victims and give them crime prevention advice. I make no apologies for officers knocking on doors to let people know they’ve left a laptop or Sat Nav in their car, or their property insecure. Once the majority of people were in bed, the team focussed on deterring criminals.”
Windsor and Maidenhead Insp Millward also spoke of the need for the public to pay attention to repeated warnings about leaving items on display in vehicles. He said: “We receive complaints about drug abuse, yet it is incidents of car crime and burglary that are actually funding those with a drug problem. Therefore it is vital that people help us to help them by listening to our crime prevention advice or reporting suspicious activity to police.
“Operations such as Lockdown will continue throughout the borough, with neighbourhood teams leading the way. It is all part of a joined up approach by police and the Royal Borough to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in Windsor and Maidenhead, with the aim of making our communities safer for all.”
The Windsor and Maidenhead neighbourhood team can be contacted via the single non-emergency number: 0845 8 505 505. In an emergency dial 999. If you have information about crime or anti-social behaviour in your neighbourhood but you don’t want to speak to police, please call the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.
Thames Valley Police ~ Windsor and Maidenhead
