FROM Thursday 17 July through to the end of August, Essex Police is supporting Operation Topaz—a national initiative led by the NPCC aimed at tackling road-related harm and wider criminality through a proactive, intelligence-led approach.

Under the banner ‘Safer Streets through Safer Roads’, this summer-long operation will be led by our Roads Policing Unit, with support from teams across the force, with a sustained focus on violence against women and girls, domestic violence and anti-social driving by two-wheel vehicles who are causing harm within our neighbourhoods.

This approach will tackle crime as a ‘cross-cutting capability’ and is designed to increase our responsiveness to emerging threats and issues.
Essex Police’s Inspector Carl Habbershaw, who leads Operation Topaz, said: “The focus is clear: we’re working to reduce harm, disrupt criminality, and improve safety in our communities.

“It’s an excellent opportunity to apply tried and tested methods of law enforcement in an innovative way to tackle some of the county’s most dangerous offenders.
“By deploying suitably trained roads policing officers to intelligence-led locations, we will protect and support victims of sexual offences, domestic abuse, and other violent crimes with the help and support from partners and key stakeholders.

“Throughout the operation, we will also continue our Vision Zero work to reduce killed and seriously injured collisions and make our road network a safer place for everyone.”

This work will enhance our day-to-day road-safety focus on the Fatal Four offences of speeding, drink or drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt and driver mobile phone use.
Activities will include:

• Deployment of trained officers to identified areas with high levels of offending and anti-social behaviour
• Targeting known offenders
• Joint operations with Neighbourhood Police Teams and partner agencies to increase visibility and reassurance
• Robust enforcement of road law

Demonstrating the impact of our work, officers made 15 arrests on launch day, reinforcing the message that safer roads mean safer streets.
Mr Adam Pipe, Head of Roads Policing added: “Throughout the day, officers were able to track the movement of offenders who think that by using the road network they will go unnoticed, but that’s not the case.
“Everything we learn through Operation Topaz will allow us to gather intelligence that is crucial to policing, enabling us to be more proactive, targeted, and effective: it allows us to intervene before crimes occur.

“Intelligence helps us build stronger cases to tackle crime and reduce the risk of harm to our communities.
“I’d encourage anyone who has information about those who are committing crime in their neighbourhood, to contact us.”

Of the 15 arrests made:

• 6 were on suspicion of being unfit to drive through drugs
• 3 were on suspicion of possession of drugs with intent to supply
• 2 arrests were made for possession of offensive weapons and two knives seized
• 2 were for immigration offences
• And a further two arrests, one for theft of vehicle and one for theft

In addition, officers recovered 6 stolen vehicles, seized 6 uninsured vehicles and issued 19 traffic offence reports for poor and dangerous driving.