The indications are good

11th August 2005, Page 26

11th August 2005

Page 26

Page 27

Page 26, 11th August 2005 — The indications are good

Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Truck crime has halved since the launch of West Midlands Police's Operation Indicate.

But DCI Carl Foulkes, who leads the unit, isn't

satisfied. Jennifer Ball reports.

To put truck crime into context, it costs the UK economy E74m a year—roughly what the country spends on tackling anti-social crime. While this might seem like a huge figure the cost of truck crime has actually fallen over the past few years says DCI Carl Foulkes, head of the West Midlands anti-truck crime unit, Operation Indicate.

But whatever the figure. the fact remains that truck crime is never going to be top of the policing agenda.A sharp illustration of its priority is provided as we sit in the West Midlands police HQ and news comes in of the terrorist attacks in London.

Understandably, truck crime is never going to compete with terrorism for police resources. However, Foulkes says he is determined to do what he can,and his Operation Indicate unit has already made great strides: truck crime in the region has fallen by more than 50% since its launch last summer.

Breaking the cycle

Foulkes reports:"Wc're now dealing with about four or five incidents a week compared with 10 or so previously.This has been the result of several things—for instance the creation of Operation Indicate, as well as an improved relationship between the haulage industry and the police."

Historically operators hit by truck crime have been in a Catch-22 situation. The police always presumed it was a minor problem, largely because the problem was under-reported, and allocated scant resources accordingly. Operators became even more reluctant to report offences, presuming that the police weren't interested, which meant that they could never paint an accurate picture... and soon.

But Foulkes insists that Indicate's proactive approach has begun to break this vicious circle: "It's led more operators to provide the police with more information, which in turn has led to a reduction in truck crime. Our liaison officer Steve Tolley has done a fantastic job and has received tremendous support from the industry and the trade associations."

On the other hand this success has brought renewed suspicion in the industry that like Indicate's predecessor, Operation Coppergold, it will be hailed as a great success and then disbanded, undoing all its good work.-Coppergold was a victim of its own success," Foul kes admits. "Truck crime was no longer seen as a threat to the force so it was scrapped, but this clearly came at a price.

"While truck crime has fallen in the region it is vital to keep a core of staff working in the background to maintain this. We also want to expand our links with other forces that have a particular problem, such as Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, so our minimum levels of investigation are adopted elsewhere."

These include a number of requirements such as sending a police officer to the crime scene and entering the details into the Police National Computer—such basic actions that you have to wonder why they weren't standard practice in the first place.

But Foulkes says the police can only do so much — operators must play their part. He recognises that a shortage of drivers means that operators often have to take one on at the last minute, but he points out that this means checking references is more important than ever.

In addition, if a certain driver is a frequent victim of crime the operator should make sure the claims are legitimate.

A recent survey from Heathrow-based freight crime unit Operation Grafton revealed that in more than 90% of the incidents it investigated the offenders had insider knowledge. Foulkes adds: -Some operators simply don't carry out quality background checks, The fact is that they wouldn't lend a £70.000 Porsche to someone they didn't know, but they give a virtual stranger a high-value vehicle plus its load, which is prob ably worth more than the Porsche."

Another continuing problem which is mindbogglingly simple to avoid is that drivers still leave keys in the ignition of unattended vehicles Operators doubtless reprimand drivers who do this, but more needs to be done says Foulkes: "They need to make sure they always take their keys with them. No driver would dream of leaving the keys in his car when he went into the petrol station to pay.

Stronger messages

"There has been a higher percentage of operators now taking a serious approach to drivers who do this; one even sacked his driver. We would like to see a strong message from all operators to drivers that they will sanction them if they're found doing this."

He admits that truck crime has never been high on the policing agenda — after all, it accounts for just 0.7% of total vehicle crime — but he is determined to raise awareness of the devastating affect it can have on industry: The numbers may be smaller but the cost is disproportionate, with the cost of a load often running into thousands of pounds before the cost of the vehicle is even taken into account.

"Criminals see stealing a trailer-load of goods as a low-risk crime. If they don't use force and take just a truck from a yard they would receive a lower sentence than if they were robbing a cash-in-transit van, but the financial rewards are bigger. A load of body spray could be worth over #30,((X) and it's easy to get a load like that into the system and sold on.And then there's the truck on top of that."

"We can never have too much information from the haulage industry no matter how small a detail," he concludes. "It's vital to continue to build this relationship as we can use this as evidence when developing policy on truck crime." •