All in a day's work: LS spends a morning with the Police

A different way to spend Remembrance Day

By Adam Richardson

Spending my minute’s silence on Remembrance Day in the back of a police van was slightly different from the service outside the Union I had planned to attend.

Now don’t worry, I hadn’t been arrested on duty for Leeds Student. I was following the police for a morning of their three-day secret operation, codenamed Operation Overton 2.

Appearing at 8am at the door of Belle Vue Police Garage on a cold winter’s morning, I was preparing to witness the police experience firsthand.

The first duty of the day was to witness the morning briefing. Here the officiers were told what the day would entail, with three warrants ready to be executed. The success of the first day’s operations was also explained. After this, I learned that I was to go out with the officers to execute one of the warrants.

Operation Overton 2 was a three-day operation and I was entering the mix on the second day. From the morning briefing it was apparent that there had already been some success had with one arrest taking place the day before. Operation Overton 2 was split into two halves – a daytime operation and a night operation. I was accompanying the officers on the daytime part which focused on primarily preventing burglaries and other crimes in the area. The evening operation was Yorkshire-wide with the intention of stopping criminals using the road networks to travel across the country.

Having been briefed on the day’s proceedings I was taken to the Operations room where I met the PC Joe Malcolm, the officer who I’d been assigned to for the morning. Whilst he prepared the van for the operation I stayed inside taking in the atmosphere of the Operations room. After a few minutes Joe came back to inform me the van was ready and we were ready to go.

At 8.52 with an outside temperature of 4 degrees (gloves off as I needed to note what was going on), three vans of Police Officers set off from the garage, passing groups of students sleepily heading to 9am lectures. On the way to our stop, I had a chat with the two officers in the van with me, Joe and Beth. Open and friendly, Joe explained that he had been a part of the service for fifteen years, before jokingly asking if I was ready for a career in the media.

We reached our destinati

on and with speed Joe and Beth exited the van, catching me by surprise as I trailed after them. The two other police vans were slightly ahead of us and had secured the area and entered the house to search for the person we were to arrest.

After the area was deemed safe, I was informed that the suspect was not present at the property. The only person at the property was the suspect’s mother, who was clearly distressed by the appearance of the police.­­­

However, the officers did find some items of interest. Having removed the carts protecting the back gate, I was shown into the back garden of the property where about thirty stolen bikes were discovered, some of them complete, others in pieces.

Littered around the garden was dog excrement, and avoiding that I was taken to what I assumed would be the find of the day. In a shed at the back of the garden – which doubled as the dog’s kennel – there was a cannabis factory. There wasn’t any cannabis there itself, but the smell was. In addition to this, there was also evidence of the production of cannabis and a broken cultivation lamp to suggest that it had been going on for some time.

After this excitement, the morning would quieten down for a while as the officers waited for SOCO (Scene of Crime Officer, if you ever wondered what it meant on TV) and a pickup truck to arrive to collect the bikes. They would have to go back to the garage to be tagged and logged. As Joe would explain at various points during the morning, this was the dual nature of police work – at some points it was fast paced and extremely exciting such as the raid on the house - whilst at others it was slower.

It was at this juncture that I was told that the job of recovering and handing back stolen goods is much easier if the stolen item is marked. Otherwise they are easy to sell at a car boot sale and there is no trail. From an initial look at the bikes, no markings were visible, but it was hoped that a few could be identified once they were back at the garage. I was informed that a good few would probably have been taken from students. Bikes are often a desirable item for thieves, and bikes are often stolen from campus: In October 2008, 62 per cent of bikes stolen from students were from on campus.

This stealing of bikes from campus chimes in with one of the things bought up at the morning briefing. During these tough economic times, it appears that there has been an increase in burglaries happening during the day in student areas. This doesn’t mean that burglaries in the nights are decreasing – the briefing informed me that on Tuesday night, there were eight burglaries in the local area – three in the Hyde Park area - with only one during the day.

Chief Superintendent Barry South of the Local Policing Department said: “Burglary is a high priority for West Yorkshire Police and this operation is just the start of an ongoing campaign to prevent people having their lives blighted by this type of crime.

As SOCO and the pickup truck arrived, I was informed that the suspect would be arrested at a later date under the Theft Act as there was good intelligence on where he was residing. The suspect’s mother was also allowed to leave, as it was apparent that she had no involvement in the offence. It would now be our job to make sure the bikes got back to the garage where they could be tagged and hopefully identified. However, things were about to pick up again…

Just as it appeared that we were heading back to the station with about thirty bikes and evidence of drugs manufacture, Joe indicated to hurry back to the van – we were going round the corner. Driving round with the Inspector in pursuit behind us, we reached the house. Again I stayed behind whilst the area was secured and was then invited to enter the house. As soon as I walked through the front door, the distinct smell of cannabis hit me.

The house was in the process of being decorated, and after walking through the front door into the living room safe, the smell of cannabis only got stronger. After checking out the rooms of the battered house, the police found for me what would be the find of the day – a cannabis plant. After exploring the property further, the officers arrested a suspect for possession of cannabis. After getting back in the van with Joe and Beth, we set off to Weetwood Police Station with the suspect in back of the van.

Reaching the station to book in the suspect, an announcement came over the radio that there would be a silence at 11am. So this was where I would spend my minute’s silence – outside Weetwood Police Station with an Officer in the front and a suspect in the back, all impeccably observing the minute’s silence for Remembrance Day.

After the final day of the operation on Thursday, it was made clear that Operation Overton 2 had been a success. 39 people had been arrested for a range of crimes, such as conspiracy to burgle, going equipped to steal, metal theft, theft of motor vehicles, wanted on warrant, money laundering, driving while over the prescribed limit and possessing drugs with the intent to supply. 36 vehicles were also seized for a number of motoring offences.

Superintendent Simon Whitehead of Safer Leeds said: “A lot of burglaries can be avoided by taking the simplest of precautions, and while we will do everything that we can to prevent them, we need householders to work with us as well.”

My morning had come to an end. After being taken back to the garage and thanking Joe and Beth, I had a quick chat with Inspector Simon Jessup, of North West Leeds Inner Neighborhood Policing Team, who had been out with us. It transpired that the operation I followed led to three people being arrested for drug possession and handling stolen goods. They are currently on police bail pending forensic enquiries.

Inspector Jessup said:  “My officers continue to target criminals who receive stolen property and sell it on. This operation recovered £6000 worth of property that we believe to be stolen from burglaries in the North West Leeds area. From a student perspective do not be tempted to buy ‘cheap’ goods when you can not be sure that the seller is reputable. It will be returned to the original owner should it turn out to have been stolen.”