Phone plan to beat
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• Police want hauliers to join a self-help initiative to halt a growing tide of truck thefts, Essex detectives are planning to set up "rings" of operators who will fax or phone each other when a vehicle is stolen, and alert their drivers to look out for the missing lorry.
They hope the scheme, which has the backing of the Freight Transport and Road Haulage Associations, will be taken up by other forces. A similar network, called Truckwatch, was launched in the West Midlands last November.
Essex police invited hauliers in the county to a meeting last Tuesday to discuss the scheme. The fact that only 15 operators turned up was largely due to apathy, although the England vs Belgium World Cup match was on the same night, according to the officer behind the plan, Inspector David Wilkinson of the Essex Crime Prevention Unit. However, he is confident something can be set up within 18 months, after which he hopes to begin talking to colleagues in the rest of the South-East. He says as long as hauliers are keen, a national scheme with an "infinite" number of members is possible.
Wilkinson plans to establish a series of rings of up to 10 operators. When a vehicle is stolen, police will inform one member of the chain who will then pass the information on to drivers and the next haulier in the group.
As an incentive, drivers will be offered a reward of £250 for finding a missing truck. Police are asking participating hauliers to help pay for this, although they will also seek sponsorship from insurance companies and vehicle manufacturers.
Wilkinson says the speed with which stolen trucks are broken-up and sent abroad makes it unlikely that many thieves will be arrested. However, the scheme will deter them. "It will make the criminal feel that if he picks on a vehicle in the scheme, he will stand more chance of getting caught," he says.
But one problem is that forces have different ways of tackling crime, and put varying degrees of emphasis on truck