Why the police have become pickpockets

In his fluorescent yellow jacket and peaked cap there is no mistaking Superintendent Jon Morgan for anything other than an upstanding police officer.

Except when he's picking pockets and swiping valuables.

Officers policing Oxford Street have taken to snatching bags, phones and wallets left lying around in an effort to bring home to shoppers how easy it is.

"It's a graphic illustration," said Mr Morgan, who encourages his officers to do the same.

"If I walk away from KFC with someone's property in full uniform, it's not just drawing their attention to it, the 20 or 30 people around them learn too.

"The biggest risk here is having a bag stolen while distracted in a coffee bar or shoe shop, or having something taken from an open bag.

"I go up to people and say, 'Have you had a nice meal? How are you going to pay?' And they realise their wallet's gone.

"Of course, then I give it back. I have only ever had one bad reaction and that was because I took a phone off a table that someone was actually using. I didn't notice the earpiece."-The message is particularly important, he said, because "table surfing" - stealing valuables left lying around - has overtaken "shoulder surfing" - observing PINs at a cashpoint - as the most common crime on Oxford Street.

Other favoured targets include bags hanging open on the back of pushchairs, valuables in rucksacks and handbags put down while the owners try on shoes.

Crime is higher at the ends of Oxford Street and half of all thefts take place in the third between Marble Arch and Selfridges.

Mr Morgan said: "There's so much each member of the public could do to minimise an already small risk. You see people walking away from a cashpoint with a wallet in one hand and £50 in the other.

"They are saying, 'Take one or the other.'"

As well as being vigilant, police advise:

Mr Morgan's team records about 30 thefts each day on the one-and-a-half mile stretch of Oxford Street.

In an attempt to clear the street of petty crime over the Christmas period, officers rounded up 72 of the most active pickpockets in dawn raids. Some were children as young as seven used in distraction thefts.