Police blitz cuts street robbery by 14 per cent

A police blitz on street robbery has cut mugging across London by more than 14 per cent, latest figures show.

Scotland Yard responded to the capital's robbery epidemic by switching 250 traffic officers to the drive against street crime two months ago.

Figures for the eight-week Operation Safer Streets campaign published today show the Met has begun to stem the rising tide of mugging. When the operation began, London was facing a 40 per cent increase in street robbery offences compared with last year.

Overall street crime levels are still up on last year, but the rise in the past eight weeks has been cut to 11 per cent. And in the past two weeks, the initiative has delivereda measurable drop in crime - with the number of offences in week eight of the campaign down 14.3 per cent on the same week last year, from 1,322 to 1,133.

Scotland Yard is delighted - but the problem now is that the 250 traffic officers have been returned to their units, halving the numbers available for Operation Safer Streets.

Commander Bob Quick said: "We have reduced street crime levels to what they were in May 2001 and we are determined to continue the gains that we have made." But he admitted: "This will not be easy.

The decision by the Commissioner to redeploy traffic officers made the past eight weeks possible and we will be looking to maintain the impact now that most of them have returned to traffic units."

One key discovery is that the specialist driving skills of traffic officers have helped police get quickly to the scene of a reported robbery. A Scotland Yard source said: "You have a greater chance of making an arrest if we get to the scene quickly, get to the victim quickly and drive them around the area while there is still a chance that the offenders can be spotted."

The finding is likely to start a programme of increased driver training for officers outside traffic division.

Police also hope that the more sophisticated intelligence gathered during the intensive operation will continue to yield results, because they have a better knowledge of likely suspects and key robbery blackspots.

In total, more than 900 street robbery suspects were arrested and 559 charged during the eight-week operation. Over 16,000 arrests were made in total for a range of street crimes, which include drugs offences.

Meanwhile, the controversial Lambeth cannabis experiment, that allows people caught in possession of cannabis merely to be cautioned and have their drugs confiscated rather than be prosecuted, has suffered a setback. New figures show a flood of drug dealers into the area.

Official statistics released by Scotland Yard show a 13 per cent rise in the number of dealers and drug users moving into the borough during the first six months of the pilot.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller, the new head of Scotland Yard's Drugs Directorate, said: "There are downsides to the scheme, but it does not put the scheme in doubt. It has saved time and it has freed officers to carry out other work.

"What is hard to show is if that extra time has been spent on tackling Class A drugs, which is the aim of the pilot."

Police are now waiting for a decision from the Home Secretary on plans to reclassify cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug.

Mr Fuller added: "Our main concern is about sending out mixed messages to young people about drugs. Even if cannabis is reclassified it will remain a criminal offence."