“The thing I’m lacking is an analyst, but I beg, steal and borrow analysts from the other forces”
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Services, it’s a white van, registration number 1234, they’ve gone, but just to let you know’ . ” She adds: “We’ve got organised crime groups going up and down the country using the main arterial routes. The East Midlands region’s police forces, together with the northern region Yorkshire forces, are working really hard. They are linking in with us and the Central Motorway Police Group, but we rely on that intelligence. The little bits of information from drivers helps us ill the bigger picture.” Now more than ever before, TruckPol’s intelligence is vital for protecting hauliers from the rising levels of freight crime being recorded each year; the igures make for bleak reading: 952 HGVs reported stolen in the nine months to 30 September; and 1,971 thefts from HGVs, which includes 1,166 reports of fuel thefts.
TruckPol has made regional police forces aware of the problem, and they have been sending out extra patrols to fuel theft hotspots.
Co-operation from local police forces is a key ingredient to TruckPol’s operation, as the organisation is then able to pinpoint crime hotspots, assess current trends and capture organised crime gangs. Coutts says the majority of forces are more than willing to pass on information to TruckPol, but police cutbacks have meant that there isn’t always a dedicated contact within each team.
Points of contact
As Coutts explains: “The problem I have is getting that identiied oficer to do those checks, look at those crimes and let me have them. Northamptonshire have a system where all their oficers, when they deal with a freight crime incident, are aware they have to email me details. So, in Northamptonshire I get messages from individual oficers, whereas other forces will use the crime desks, and others will have a single point of contact, such as Derbyshire police, which is brilliant.” But all of this data is only useful if acted upon, and there is currently no individual responsible for co-ordinating police initiatives to tackle freight crime.
Coutts says: “We provide the national picture for freight crime intelligence, but there is no-one acting upon this data at a national level. So although I link in with all the regional units, and we’ve also spoken with the national co-ordinators, we can only pass on the intelligence. We can’t enforce what is acted upon.” ■
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