Police raid Telford homes in burglary crackdown

Detectives, response officers and road and police officers were targeting suspects at their homes throughout the day as part of Citadel, West Mercia Police's ongoing operation to reduce burglary.

A 30-year-old man was arrested this morning in connection with a spate of burglaries in Telford over the last few months and is due to be interviewed.

Further raids were being carried out in Dawley this afternoon.

Yesterday, officers from Hampshire Constabulary, acting on behalf of West Mercia Police, arrested a man in his 50s on suspicion of burgling a house in Newport this week.

Officers from Telford have travelled down to Hampshire to interview him.

The road policing support team has been waiting at several routes in the area, stopping vehicles suspected of being involved in crime.

Safer Neighbourhood Teams have also been patrolling residential areas, assisting officers carrying out any warrants and arrests, and issuing security and reassurance messages to householders.

Chief Inspector Paul Arnold, who is overseeing the current Citadel operation, said: "Burglary remains the top priority for police here in Telford and we are working extremely hard to bring levels back to where we would like them to be.

"Citadel is a wide-scale initiative with several strands, including the targeting of known offenders, increased patrols, crime prevention advice and even working closely with jewellers who may be offered stolen goods for sale – so that burglars struggle to sell on their ill-gotten gains."

Citadel was launched in September in response to a significant increase in burglary across West Mercia's force area, mostly in the Shropshire and Telford areas.

Part of the operation sees the launch of the dotMailer computerised messaging service, which allows the police to keep in touch with Neighbourhood Watch and any others who sign up with the latest news on crimes in their area.