SCOOTER crime in London has fallen by more than half since the Met Police were given the green light to use a more firm-handed approach to catching criminals.
Mail Online reports that moped enabled crime in the capital has fallen from 20,973 cases to 9,723 cases, all since Scotland Yard began using tactical contact with the criminals as a method of removing them from their bikes.
Police first began using the new approach in November 2018, after a public outcry to take harder action against the culprits, who at the time seemed to run amok in the city.
In 2018 Commander Amanda Pearson, of the Met's front-line policing unit, said the approach was needed to stop dangerous chases. “A lot of them get up and run away, looking aghast at how dare we,” Ms Pearson said in a briefing at Scotland Yard in November 2018.
Chief Inspector Jim Corbett, from Operation Venice, which tackles moped and motorcycle crime, said: “The reduction in mopeds and motorcycles being used in crime is great to see, but we recognise we are not out of the woods.
“Although we have seen reductions, we need to continue to work together with our partners and the public to reduce crime further and we are asking for the public to follow our Lock, Chain, Cover advice.”
Not everyone was a fan of the new police tactics, with some MPs stating that the police’s approach was too much and were calling for the criminal activity to be dealt with in other, more humanitarian ways.
With the fall in crime in the capital, it seems likely that the Met’s preferred method of combating this type of crime will soon be adopted in other areas of the country, where the blight of scooter criminals remains high.
