More stopped in police initiatives

REDBRIDGE police putting officers back on the streets to tackle crime in two new operations is thought to be behind a huge increase in arrests.

Police figures reveal that a total of 1,773 criminals were apprehended in the borough from April to June, compared with just 698 between January and March, a rise of 230 per cent.

Police believe the increased arrest rate is partly due to their successful anti-street crime and robbery initiatives Operation Coral and Operation Diamond, which draft officers on to the streets.

But, although welcoming the increase in arrests, members of a Redbridge neighbourhood watch group and the chairman of Redbridge Police Community Consultative Group (PCCG) have expressed concerns that the arrest rate is masking a crime rise as the initiative only began in June.

Detective Sergeant Andy Mahoney from Ilford Intelligence said: "There has definitely been a marked increase in arrests for street crime as a result of these two operations.

"Operation Diamond, which is running across Redbridge, is our robbery response car which deals with allegations of robbery and street crime. The car, which was introduced in June, is on stand-by at certain times of the day."

The Coral initiative, which was introduced at the end of July, operates in Ilford Town Centre and is a way of tackling street crime by using CCTV systems and utilising observation points throughout the town centre.

Coral also involves uniformed officers and plainclothed officers being drafted in to deal with anybody seen behaving suspiciously.

Ilford police figures reveal huge increases in apprehensions for crimes ranging from vehicle offences and burglaries to theft, criminal damage and drugs offences, which rose by almost 300 per cent between April and June.

However, expressing caution is Mick Russell, chairman of the Park Neighbourhood Watch in Wanstead, who said: "What we must remember with these figures is that they are not reported crimes but crimes where people have been apprehended.

"The good news is that police are arresting more people but it also means that if they are making more arrests the crime figures are probably going up. The increase in apprehensions for drugs offences is quite startling."

And chair of Redbridge Police Community Consultative Group Cllr Ralph Scott said: "The PCCG is always alarmed by a general drift up in the crime figures. If you look on the year-on-year figures they have gone up quite a lot.

"Redbridge police are trying to do the best they can to target high streets and deal with street crime but there still needs to be more police officers on the street."

12:23 Thursday 1st August 2002

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