Cops launched their latest crackdown on crime in Manchester city centre this morning (September 27) — targeting wrong-doers on the region’s transport network.
Operation Avro’s latest action, as it is known, saw scores of high-profile GMP officers patrol the city centre. They deployed knife arch scanners, drug sniffer dogs, and supported ticket inspectors carrying out checks on passengers.
In all, nine people were arrested for a range of offences, the force said at 2pm. They included disqualified driving, drunk drivers, drug drivers and shoplifting.
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Speaking to the Manchester Evening News on this morning’s action, Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes said: “Operation Avro is our regular operation Greater Manchester Police is now running to provide reassurance to our communities, but also to arrest the criminals that are causing pain to those communities.
“Today, we’re focusing particularly on the transport network hubs. We’re at Victoria Station to do an operation on the tram platforms — working closely with Transport for Greater Manchester, and GMP’s specialist transport unit — to carry out ticket checks and provide reassurance.
“We’re using dog patrols at the moment, and a knife arch that detects people carrying knives to weed out the criminals to make the transport network safer for everyone. We know that the people want to feel safe on the transport network, seeing uniformed officers out there, doing what we do really well, provides that reassurance. We will be making arrests, we have already made arrests today.”
Throughout the M.E.N.’ s morning with uniformed officers, scores of people passed through the knife arch in Victoria Station — which is a metal detector. However, officers also use the tool to spot avoidant behaviour, and quizzed several people who dodged round the scanner.
One of the force’s sniffer dogs, Star, was also out investigating the possibility of drugs being present on passengers and platforms at the hub.
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