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Truck crime plan for West Midlands
Page 7
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A NEW STRATEGY for tackling truck crime in the West Midlands is to be drawn up by business leaders and the police amid fears that it ..;ould start damaging the regional :tconomv.
This follows a meeting last week 23 August) where the results of a survey into the problem were thscussed by the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Dfficers and the West Midlands Business Council (WMBC).
James Watkins, executive director of the WMBC, says the survey among its 23 member organisations shows widespread concern that existing measures to prevent truck crime are inadequate: "Our :oncern isn't just for the haulage industry — but how this form of rime can have an impact on the wider regional economy.
"If the reputation and reliability -)f logistics is questioned it could lave a knock-on impact on manuacturing: 20% of the regional fvorkforce is estimated to be in nanufacturing."
Watkins says the first step will ae to examine how police and )usiness can work more closely ogether in tackling the problem. But he rules out big increases in government funding, despite claims that Operation Indicate, the regional police unit dedicated to tackling truck crime, is seriously under-resourced (CM 24 August): "Most of the time, it's not about more resources; it's about using resources more effectively."