Four arrested on suspicion of Doncaster car crime plans after police stop vehicle

Our officers stopped a Volkswagen Golf on Thorne Road, Edenthorpe, after they had been given information about the vehicle which had been seen in suspicious circumstances the previous day.

After a search, four men who were in the car were arrested on suspicion of being equipped to break into cars. They have all been released under investigation.

Those arrests were made the same week as we ran an operation to crack down on burglaries in Thorne.

Thorne had seen a spike in residential and commercial burglaries, and concerns had been raised by residents about the issue. We worked with CID to put an operation together.

It saw both high visibility officers and policemen in plain clothes out on the streets during the daytime, evenings, and in the early hours. It saw a reduction in burgaries.

We also saw officers on the streets of Askern, the day before tough new compulsory restrictions were brought in to reduce the spread of coronavirus.

That was part of Operation Sceptre, the campaign against knife crime. We carried out two stop and searches, which is probably fewer than we would have carried out had people not already have been asked to avoid social contact and stay at home. There were no arrests.

In the last few weeks we have also seen two houses raided under drugs warrants carried in Armthorpe. People at each address were given cannabis warnings.

I’ve been neighbourhood inspector for Doncaster East for three months nearly now, about a quarter of the year. Looking back over that time makes for interesting figures.

We have carried out 50 stop and searches. They consist of 18 in January, 16 in February and 16 in March. We have also made 12 arrests, of which nine were in January and three in February.

We have recovered 13 stolen vehicles, with three in January, four in February and six in March. And we either seized or issued antisocial behaviour warnings over 11 vehicles, Two if those were in January, but most, nine, were in February.