Neighbourhood Crime AVRO tackles community issues forcewide and sees dozens of arrests

GMP’s Operation AVRO took on a Neighbourhood Crime theme for its latest crime-tackling instalment on Thursday (14 November), taking on everything from burglaries to vehicle crime.

By the evening, work across the districts had seen 52 arrests, more than 100 vehicle stops, 120 deployments to work including knife arches, school events, and hotspot patrols, and 7 warrants.

Operation AVRO is a force wide initiative that delivers extra resources and specialist officers to a different district within Greater Manchester each month with the aim of tackling issues of acute public concern in a highly visible manner. On occasion this also includes basing the work around ‘themes’ – such as this week’s Neighbourhood Crime addition.

Thursday’s AVRO saw every district force-wide tackle neighbourhood crime through a mixture of enforcement, engagement, and preventative measures. This includes core neighbourhood crime themes of robberies, burglaries, theft from person and vehicle crime. However, we do know that these crimes are linked to other community concerns such as ASB, drug use and retail crime and that informed our subsequent approach to the day.

Neighbourhood crime is a key priority for teams across Greater Manchester Police, and officers work hard to immerse themselves in communities, whether through PACT meetings where residents can discuss issues, or via school engagement officers, who provide inputs on safety and the law.

AVRO’s work bolstered that for the day and saw countless deployments across every district, including warrants, visits to stores with Trading Standards, retail crime operations, hotspot patrolling, weapons sweeps, Metrolink operations, drop-in sessions, school visits, and much more.

Highlights of yesterday’s work include:

Bury - Traffic operation

In around three hours, officers stopped 45 vehicles on Manchester Road in Whitefield. This includes 11 for speeding, 13 for document checks, 7 for driving with defects, 7 for driving without due care and attention, and 6 for driving while using a mobile phone. The results included stop searches, words of advice, Traffic Offence Reports, and an arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence of cannabis. Stolen vehicles can often be used during the act of burglaries and robberies – and assessing vehicles is a key part of recovering them and tackling those suspected of crimes.

Bolton – Stolen vehicle discovery

During work around a supermarket in Bolton, officers were made aware of an ongoing shoplifting – with the suspect quickly detained. The suspect was stop-searched and arrested on suspicion of going equipped and theft. A subsequent vehicle search recovered suspected stolen goods, with the car additionally being seized on suspicion of being stolen.

Manchester – Burglary and theft work

Proactive work tackling phone thefts in Manchester city centre saw a house search and a man arrested on suspicion of theft from person. A phone was recovered on suspicion of being stolen during the work and officers will now view to reunite it with its rightful owner. Work also saw a man arrested on suspicion of two counts of burglary, following on from reports of a crime on the 13^th.

Chief Superintendent Helen Critchley, GMP lead for Neighbourhood crime said: "Yesterday’s activity was designed to give communities across Greater Manchester the confidence that GMP is committed to keeping people safe. We thank our partners who continue to support us in that effort.

“Victims of these types of crimes know and have told us what lasting harm they can cause: preventing that for as many as possible is our ambition.

“Officers across Greater Manchester will continue to tackle all types of neighbourhood crimes, through days of action patrols, proactive work, and more. If you have any issues in your area, your neighbourhood team will be there to listen to you and take action."

To report a crime, contact police via 101 or our Live Chat service at gmp.police.uk. Alternatively, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111. Always call 999 in an emergency.

Our community messaging system ‘Bee in the loop’ will allow you to choose what information you would like to know about including crime and incidents in your local area. The system is also an invaluable investigative tool and can be used to appeal for information or intelligence and help to solve crime.

We will keep you updated on the work we are doing to raise awareness of the work our teams are doing to keep you safe.

Sign up to Bee in the loop about what is happening in your community: https://www.beeintheloop.co.uk/

Read more about our Operation AVRO, and the work that it has achieved here: Operation AVRO | Greater Manchester Police