Undercover taxi cabs have been dispersed in the streets of Burnley to deal with the anti-social activities against the members of the public transport network.
A number of officers across town have started working with the company Lancashire’s Safer Travel Unit to create a vehicle which has been modified to appear like a taxi, complete with taxi signs and plates. They have done this as a part of their plan to secretly identify and arrest those individuals who are committing crimes and other anti-social activities against the public transport network and its operators in the local area.
The officers named the covert operation “Operation Trojan”. They were pleased to say that in the operations that took place, there were no anti-social activities were reported.
Nick Hodgeson, an Acting Inspector, said that buses and taxis are usually the subjects of anti-social actions, particularly stone throwing.
He added that although these incidents are few and happen infrequently, those who end up as victims are left in a lot of financial and sometimes, emotional distress. He said that this was the primary reason why they were making combined efforts to address the growing issue, preventing and detecting offences right away.
He further said that the message that they were trying to convey or get across to offenders was clear – that together with the Safer Travel Unit and local travel operators, they would definitely not be tolerating anti-social behaviour and activities and those who commit offences would be given the appropriate penalty by the police.