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The United States
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The United States is 10 years ahead of Britain when it comes to fighting truck crime, says Detective Sergeant Mark Hooper of Truckpol not least because the federal government invests a great deal of money in it. As a result, there are effective truck crime units operating in places such as Miami, Baltimore, Los Angeles and New York.
Among these are the Miami Dade Tomcats, which Hooper describes as "a tremendous outfit" that tackles crime at the city's port.
The Tomcats (Tactical Operations Multi agency Cargo Anti Theft Squad) was set up in 2001 when truck and cargo theft started to soar in Florida. Since then the unit, which has more than 50 people devoted to tackling cargo crime, has recovered almost $30m (£17m) in stolen property each year.
"They have squads and squads of people and they take out decoy trucks and set up honey traps to entice people to steal loads. That level of involvement we just can't do here," says Hooper.
Teams are set up around docks where organised crime 3s particularly prevalent.
Andy Round, of Operation Indicate, says a police officer from the West Midlands has just returned from the United States to learn from the Tomcats and was blown away by the size of the unit.
"If we put the same amount of money into [fighting truck crime] we'd be laughing," he says. In one operation there was an entire LOV trailer full of Elm worth of equipment.
"Our forensic techniques are better, but they have more money," Round adds.
The States dedicates so many resources to the problem because the financial stakes are high. If theft reaches unacceptable levels, jobs are at risk a company might decide to relocate and take its business elsewhere.
Operation Grafton was set up to target criMe linked to Heathrow Airport for the sarthe reason, Hooper says. One major electronics manufacturer was being hit so badly by theft that it threatened to move to Frankfurt if the Home Off ice did not act.