THE number of people arrested daily in Essex has shot up by three-quarters, it has emerged.The rise has been attributed to the newly appointed Chief Constable's Operation Days of Action – a countywide initiative that saw extra police officers being sent out on patrol.
By Sharon Asplin
THE number of people arrested daily in Essex has shot up by three-quarters, it has emerged.
The rise has been attributed to the newly appointed Chief Constable's Operation Days of Action - a countywide initiative that saw extra police officers being sent out on patrol.
Before the operation, the force made an average of 107 arrests each day.
The average in the past two months has rocketed to 188 each day - an increase of 75%.
By March 2006, Essex Police hope to have an additional 200 police officers out on patrol in the community.
Chief Constable Roger Baker said: “For the force to swing into action and achieve these results so quickly is superb and we will build further on it.
“Business is brisk but it is business as usual for the force. People have seen more officers out on frontline policing duties and there will be more.
“We want to deal face to face with our victims and we want to hear from anyone who has information about crimes that are being committed. Report the crime and shop the criminals, we will arrest them.”
The operation results were last night welcomed by Robert Chambers, chairman of Essex Police Authority.
Describing Ch Con Baker as 'the top cop in the country', Mr Chambers said: “I am extremely happy with the way things are going since he has come into post.
“Officers once spent a lot of their time doing 'back room' work which, whilst necessary, are not how we want officer time deployed.”
He said the extra officers planned for patrols would come from cutting the amount of time police officers spent form-filling and administrative tasks.
Mr Chambers added: “People want to see police officers out on the street. We want that too, and are actively delivering it.”
The total number of people arrested during July and August, including the Days of Action arrests, was 10,170 and nearly a third of those arrested were charged to appear before the courts.
The overall detection rate for July and August increased to 31.1% compared to 25.9% for the same period last year.
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