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Hijackings rise 60 0 10
Page 12
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!Jut cops fight back
)espite more and more attacks on drivers the police say ley are making progress. Jennifer Ball reports.
r LEAST 10 drivers a month are ing robbed or hijacked. The latt quarterly report from antiirk crime unit TruckPol shows at during the fourth quarter of 04 there were 29 hijackings mpared with 18 a year earlier. TruckPol says the level of violence also rising, with drivers being iaulted and threatened with ham!rs,knives and firearms.
Hijackers are now more likely to duct the driver or security guard die the theft takes place, and eves are staging accidents so the ick driver gets out to exchange tails, invariably leaving his keys the ignition. His truck and load !stolen and he is left by the roade (CM 12 January).
TruckPol boss Detective Serint Mark Hooper warns that erators are continuing to ignore vice by leaving their keys in the when they get out to make a ivery:"We have been promoting better key security for months but carelessness is still a contributory factor in the theft of the six or seven trucks stolen every day. In one police area in November and December 2004,some 50% of cases investigated by them were the result of keys left in the vehicle."
However Truckpol says it is making progress against the criminals following a number of arrests in the last quarter.
Police made arrests across the country during the last quarter of 2004 for offences ranging from curtain slashing to full blown hijacking, says TruckPol.
Hampshire police arrested a man in connection with a truck hijack in November five men were arrested by Staffordshire police in connection with a truck and van theft. An Essex a man suspected of leading a criminal gang responsible for a number of truck thefts and hijacks was arrested by police in London. He has been charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and has been remanded in custody.
Latest TruckPol figures show that operation Indicate in the West Midlands and Operation Grafton at Heathrow continue to be successful in driving down crime, by as much as 70%. Elsewhere in the UK, Operation Acumen continues to have a positive affect in reducing truck crime in Warwickshire, and Essex police have made 15 arrests so far during Operation Streetcar, targeting truck crime along the A13 and Al2 corridors.
DC Mark Gathers from TruckPol says: "This success has been due to hard work by the local police force and the amount of intelligence coming into us. We appeal to operators to continue to provide us with such intelligence so we can target police resources more effectively."