Proactive Policing: Operation Leopard - Essex Police

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Taken from Policing Essex - The Annual Report of Essex Police Authority and the Chief Constable for 2007/08

Operation Leopard

A unique and brilliantly simple neighbourhood policing operation which halted crime on a troubled housing estate in Basildon received praise from home secretary Jacqui Smith.

Officers involved in Operation Leopard knocked on the doors of known offenders, warned them that their behaviour wouldn't be tolerated and then photographed them and their associates as they wandered around the estate for the next four days.

The result was dramatic. Burglaries, criminal damage and car crime stoppedcompletely during the course of the operation at the end of January and there have been few incidents since. A further 15 operations are being carried out in the Basildon district this year with joint funding from HQ and a housing association.

The pioneering operation attracted considerable national media attention (linked below) and the publicitydrew inquiries from other forces around Britain keen to adopt similar techniques.

Operation Leopard was devised during a meeting between Basildon district commander Chief Insp Mark Wheeler, the Pitsea area commander Insp Steve Ditchburn and Sgt Gavin Brook, the neighbourhood policing team sergeant for Vange.

The trio were considering ideas on how to tackle crime on one particular housing estate when they hit upon the idea of using Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) officers. The FIT is normally deployed at major public events, such as football matches or at fox hunts, to gather information and photographs of troublemakers. Some FIT officers had been used to film car cruisers plaguing a car park in Pitsea some months earlier. But it was the first time they were to be sent into a housing estate.

With FIT booked for the four-day operation, local officers then carried out a widespread public survey to find out who was causing problems on the estate.

With information from the public and from police intelligence, the names of 14 known troublemakers were obtained. As the operation got under way, targeted suspects and their friends laughed and joked at being photographedand being asked to givetheir personaldetails. But they quickly realised it was no laughing matter as the officers followed them, filmed them as they sat in quiet alleyways and continued to ask questions.

Sixty stop-checks and five stop and searches were carried out during the course of the operation. Four associates of the 14 suspects were arrested.

Two hundred residents who were questioned before the operation and helped provide names of troublemakers were questioned again after the operation and said that Operation Leopard had increased their confidence in the police and also reduced their fear of crime.

Chief Insp Wheeler said "Operation Leopard was not about targeting kids hanging around on street corners. It was about targeting people believed to be responsible for criminal damage, vehicle crime and burglary. We are committed to solving these problems and the use of the specialist officers for this operationshould confirm to the people how serious we are about doing that."

Home secretary Jacqui Smith said "We know early intervention works, but I want stronger action to deal with persistent offenders. I am particularly pleased with the success of Operation Leopard in Basildon in turning the focus on persistent offenders, giving them a taste of their own medicine - daily visits, repeated warnings and relentless filming of offenders to create an environment where there is nowhere to hide." - End

Links -

Operation Leopard | UK news | guardian.co.uk

Updated: Home Secretary praises Vange police operation (From Echo)

Is this the type of proactive policing that would benefit the whole country and that we should expect?