New Northumbria Police programme to target bike-related anti social behaviour

Northumbria Police has announced a new operation to crack down on motorcycle related anti social behaviour across the North East.

Known as Operation Capio, the project is already underway and consists of a taskforce allowing additional officers to be on the ground in areas with high rates of anti social behaviour regarding bikes.

The police force has said there will be an increase in dedicated police activity to target offenders causing harm in the region, including the use of drones.

Neil Hall, Community Chief Inspector at the force explained how the project will work, saying: "The main thrust of the programme will be deploying more officers with mixed capabilities into hotspot areas where we know motorcycle disorder is rife.

"We'll be proactive in allowing them to disrupt that behaviour.

"The funding we've received allows us to put overtime in place, meaning we can deploy officers into an area to then specifically focus on motorcycle disorder."

"People want to live in safe communities."

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Funding for the project will come from the Home Office’s Safer Streets funding programme. "That pays for drones, the campaign to get the public reporting incidences of anti social behaviour and crucially the bespoke squad covering the issue" added Kim McGuinness. Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner.

"For me this is just a pilot" she continued. "We need this rolling out across the whole area, not just here but nationally.

"Off road bikes are being used anti socially in our neighbourhoods and really terrorising people. They are dangerous, quite often they're stolen and we really need to be tackling this problem for our residents.

"With the action that police are taking, we are getting results."

In one week of the trial seven motorcycles have already been seized and destroyed as part of the programme in Sunderland and South Tyneside.

"People report these incidents so we know where the hotspots are" explained McGuinness, who is also running for the role of North East Mayor.

"A lot of these bikes are stolen and if these bikes can be returned to their owners they will be. Otherwise the bikes will be taken away and destroyed."

"It isn't always straightforward pursuing bikes" said Hall. "There are obvious safety risks.

"If we get called to an area the drone will be there to support that. It has really good capabilities in terms of tracking drivers to their destination point.

"There is nowhere to hide.

"Anyone who is riding motorbikes when they know they shouldn't be, there will be consequences."