“I really want you to go out and sell this stuff”, was the rallying cry from Insp John McKinney at the launch of a new crime crackdown at two troubled estates in Northampton.
During the next two weeks Operation Hallow will launch into full swing as a team of officers and PCSOs will be knocking on the doors of every single one of the 2,000 homes in Lings and Lumbertubs trying to give away SmartWater liquid to residents.
The crime preventing SmartWater will be given to people free of charge in an attempt to get at least 80 per cent of households ‘covered’. The liquid, invisible except when under UV light, has a unique forensic signature which ties it to one property. Operation Hallow will target key addresses in the eastern district to try to stamp out burglary and robbery, with SmartWater playing a key role, both in deterring and catching criminals.
Insp McKinney, who is leading the police operation, said: “Whenever someone is arrested, they cannot go into custody without going under a UV light and we cannot check-in stolen property unless we know it has been checked for SmartWater. This project follows on from really detailed mapping of crime patterns in these areas. We hope it is going to have a major impact on acquisitive crime because it will give us a great deal of intelligence on where, when and how burglaries and robberies are being carried out, which will lead us to who is carrying them out.”
Operation Hallow was set up in the mould of a similar scheme in Thorplands, which saw a massive drop of more than 40 per cent in this type of crime during a three-month operation, a statistic which has held steady even after the project ended. The first, ‘gold’, stages will involve targeting the key areas, while ‘silver’ will move on to ‘cocooning’ problem streets to make sure crime doesn’t simply drift away to nearby streets.
Each resident will receive a letter at least three days in advance explaining that officers will be visiting. The third, ‘bronze’, stage will include other community projects, such as new play areas for children, litter-picks, tree lopping and cutting back overgrown bushes.
Insp McKinney said: ‘We have already learnt from the Thorplands project and this one is now even better. We really want to make Lings and Lumbertubs better places to live.”
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