Efforts to tackle motorbike-related crime and anti-social behaviour in Leeds have stepped up gear with extra funding and targeted operations by police and partner agencies.
Stolen motorbikes, quad bikes, and electric motorbikes have regularly featured in incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour across Leeds and have been involved in several serious road traffic collisions.
Recent incidents have included motorbikes being used in robberies and thefts of other motorcycles, drug dealing, and violent crime, as well as being driven dangerously and at speed on and off-road, often by riders without helmets.
The criminal and anti-social use of stolen and unregistered motorcycles is an issue going back over several years in Leeds, and a number of targeted policing operations have resulted in significant prison terms for those involved and have also seen the use of civil injunctions to tackle the problem.
Over £100,000 of Safer Streets funding has been secured and is being used to support three projects across the city, these include measures to prevent illegal vehicles accessing Middleton Park by using innovative access control solutions; an intervention community-based mechanics project for young people in Killingbeck and Seacroft; and investment into additional staff and equipment to increase activity in hotspot areas at key times.
The district’s specialist Off-Road Bike Team has recently received additional support through the funding awarded to West Yorkshire Combined Authority from the Home Office’s Safer Streets initiative.
Operation Ashfield has been introduced as a result of the funding, which allows for additional resources, training and targeted patrols in areas identified as hotspots to disrupt anti-social behaviour and motorbike related crime.
Since the introduction of the operation, with intelligence from the communities, officers have seized over 93 off road motorbikes in May and June. It has also shown a 6% reduction in reports of motorbike related anti-social behaviour compared with figures last year.
Separately, a city-wide Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) is also proposed to be launched which covers the whole of the Leeds area. This will prohibit vehicle owners from revving car engines unnecessarily, playing music too loudly, organising ‘car cruising events’ and causing nuisance or danger to the public.
It will aim to stop inconsiderate parking, littering from a vehicle, and the use of intimidating language or behaviour when behind the wheel.
As part of the PSPO, people will also be prohibited from engaging in, promoting, encouraging or assisting in activities which are likely to cause nuisance or a danger to the public, which includes things like ‘car cruising’ events. This also includes being involved in any online organisation of said events.
At the same time, neighbourhood policing team officers in east Leeds have launched Operation Dieselcrest to increase their focus on reducing motorbike-related crime and anti-social behaviour.
The initiative, led by officers from the Leeds East Neighbourhood Policing Team with support from the Off-Road Bike Team and specialist Roads Policing Unit officers, launched in July to target the issue in the Burmantofts and Richmond Hill, Killingbeck and Seacroft, Gipton and Harehills, Crossgates and Whinmoor, Garforth and Swillington, Kippax and Methley and Temple Newsam and Halton wards.
To date, their work has seen 18 motorbikes and one quad bike seized and 12 suspects dealt with, including four arrests linked to the recovery of suspected stolen motorbikes.
The team has also carried out a large number of disruption and attrition visits to those suspected of involvement in motorbike crime, gathered a wealth of intelligence to serve as the basis for future operations, and engaged with legitimate motorbike users while out and about on the roads to raise awareness and give crime prevention advice and encourage them to increase their security.
They are also working with Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team and Operation Leodis, which tackles housing-related anti-social behaviour, to ensure the full range of measures can be used against those identified as being involved.
A day of action, backed by local councilors with funding from the Inner East and Outer East Community Committees, ran recently targeting hotspot areas in east Leeds.
Off-road bike officers and roads policing officers, on motorbikes and in cars, supported the operation by local neighbourhood policing team officers.
They seized a motorbike in East End Park after it was stopped being ridden without a licence or insurance, recovered a 4×4 vehicle after it failed to stop for officers, and recovered a stolen van in East End Park.
Officers checked around a hundred empty properties that can often be used to store stolen bikes, and patrolled key areas throughout the night, resulting in no motorbike-related calls.
Members of the Operation Dieselcrest team also held a crime prevention roadshow at Squires motorbike café and spoke to around 200 bikers to offer crime prevention advice.
Specialist detectives from Leeds District Crime Team have also been continuing their efforts to target offenders using motorbikes to commit street robberies or robberies of legitimate motorcycles, electric bikes, and pedal cycles.
Their work has recently seen five suspects variously charged over a series of robberies and attempted robberies, including incidents on the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Rodley.
Motorbike owners are being advised to be aware of the issue and to review the physical security measures they use both at home and while out riding; to use good quality disc locks and chains, even if only leaving their bikes momentarily; and to always be wary and exercise caution when selling a motorbike or scooter, particularly through social media, and to consider the information they are giving out, who they are communicating with and to conduct any meeting up in a public location with company.
Further relevant advice is available at;
www.westyorkshire.police.uk/advice/vehicles-cycles/vehicle-crime/motorbike-and-scooter-security
To find out more about Op Dieselcrest visit;
