Wednesday March 31, 2010 - Cirencester Police worked with their colleagues at Wiltshire Police and partner agencies in an operation yesterday, Tuesday March 30, designed to tackle crime on the county’s roads.
Operation Nowen was carried out between 9am and 5pm and involved checks on vehicles travelling on the A417 out of Cirencester and in the northbound lay-by of the A419 near Kings Meadow.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology (ANPR) was used during the operation to help reduce and detect crime. These checks were aimed to reduce burglary and disrupt the transportation of drugs, using a police dog to carry out searches on target vehicles.
Intelligence Liaison Officer for the area, PC Mike Ramsay, who organised the operation said;”Keeping people safe on the county’s roads is always the central focus of these operations. The use of current police technology to support targeted intelligence has proven to be an extremely effective tool in disrupting commuting criminals engaged in burglary and drug crime, as well as the apprehension of car tax and insurance evaders.”
During the operation checks were carried out on 65 vehicles, which resulted in three vehicles being seized for having no insurance and their drivers subsequently reported.
The drugs dog carried out searches and an arrest for drugs possession was made.
The operation was conducted in conjunction with partner agencies to identify suspect rogue traders and to carry out checks for vehicles using red diesel.
PC Ramsay added, “We hope this operation reassures the public that we will not tolerate vehicle associated crimes in this county and will continue working closely with our partner agencies and colleagues in neighbouring Constabularies to keep people safe on Gloucestershire’s roads.”
