Police carry out raids as part of Operation Dreyfus vehicle crime crack-down

Five men and one woman have been arrested and drugs and suspected stolen vehicles seized

Transcript

00:00Chief Inspector Gemma Calvert is in charge today of Operation Dreyfus here in Washington.

00:07What's happening?

00:08So today we're running Operation Impact with a focus around Operation Dreyfus.

00:12So Operation Dreyfus is an investigation operation to tackle serious acquisitive crime, in particular

00:18theft of and theft from motor vehicle and burglary, which is affecting our community

00:22but also we've seen a crime spike in those particular crime areas.

00:26And how many officers are taking part today?

00:27We'll have over 60 officers taking part in the operation today to tackle those issues.

00:31And what will they actually be doing?

00:32So the officers will be executing search warrants, we'll be searching for wanted persons and

00:37we'll be offering crime prevention advice and also engaging with our communities to

00:40listen to their concerns and offer reassurance and update them around the progress of Operation

00:45Dreyfus.

00:46And how important is it for the force to actually be seen as taking part in this kind of thing?

00:50It's really important.

00:51We know that our community feel that they need that reassurance, that they have some

00:55concerns around the increase in serious acquisitive crime in this particular area.

00:59It's really important for us to offer that reassurance and to show the public that we're

01:02dedicated to tackle those issues but also that we won't tolerate those issues in the

01:07community and to offer reassurance.

01:09And Operation Impact's been underway for a while now, how's it been going?

01:12It's been going really well.

01:13So we've had Operation Impact force-wide for the last year.

01:16It was launched in the summer last year and we've done all four corners, so we've done

01:19from here down in Sunderland all the way up to Berwick and everywhere in between and it's

01:22going really well.

01:23We've had some really good positive feedback from the community and it gives us the opportunity

01:27locally to focus on some of those areas of concern that are really impacting our communities

01:31the most.