Police have announced a successful crackdown on crime in East Oxford thanks to a crime prevention method used in Canada.
Operation Bombard is an intelligence gathering crime elimination operation that involves officers collecting information from the community before focusing on the crime hotspots. In July on St. Clements Street, two bikes were stolen, as well as a burglary and an attempted burglary.
After Operation Bombard was implemented, no stolen bikes or burglaries have been reported in the area from August 1 to September 9. Operation Bombard is carried out in stages after a spike in crime is detected.
First, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) carry out home visits and drop off leaflets as a means of gathering intelligence about who might be involved in a particular crime.
And the community can also tell officers about any other issues they wish to express concern about.
A branch of this is the ‘Coffee With Cops’ interaction sessions used by police in cafes around the area. This intelligence and information is then used to conduct patrols at key times in order to maximise the chances of catching offenders.
In addition to this, offender management is employed, where officers speak to known felons as a means of trying to discourage them from further crime.
Officers also urge the criminals to change their lifestyles and offer them a support network as a means of trying to break the cycle of criminal activity.
The results are then distributed around the community, displayed in shop windows, announced by online means and mentioned at the ‘Coffee With Cops’ sessions.
Sgt Nathan Budd from the East Oxford neighbourhood team, who is leading Operation Bombard, said: “We are very please with the results of Operation Bombard on St Clement’s Street and will continue to use it as a method of preventing crime in a specific area. We will always seek to deal with any suspects of crime positively, as our aim is always to encourage the suspect away from crime completely.”
