Northumbria Police set for further action with Operation Checkpoint

Officers across the region have teamed up to take action against criminal activity in one of their biggest rural crime operations yet.

Officers and Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness have reinforced their commitment to rural crime as Operation Checkpoint continues to pursue suspects and keep communities safe.

Operation Checkpoint, the biggest rural policing operation of its kind in the country, ran overnight on March 30 and into the early hours of March 31, with the operation tallying up almost 70 vehicles stopped, drugs seized, suspects arrested and targeted initiatives all carried out.

The ongoing initiative targets suspected criminal activity in order to swiftly disrupt organised networks and protect communities by acting on local intelligence and emerging crime trends.

Checkpoint runs with the support of Northumbria Police officers from the Rural Crime Team, Neighbourhood Policing Teams, Op Dragoon and Operations Department as well as the network of Rural Crime Volunteers and partner agencies like the Environment Agency.

The latest operation saw Northumbria Police work alongside Durham Constabulary, Cleveland Police, Cumbria Police, Lancashire Constabulary and North and West Yorkshire Police - making Operation Checkpoint one of the biggest multi-agency operations ever.

Neighbourhood Inspector Garry Neill praised the combined efforts and promised actions like this will continue in future.

Inspector Neill said: “I want to thank all the Forces and partners for coming together to create a fantastic and robust approach to this coordinated action.

“By continuing to work together, share best practice and intelligence, we’re able to strengthen our policing response to rural crime and clamp down on those looking to take part in this type of criminality.

“We will continue our multi-agency efforts to protect the communities we serve and effectively reduce rural crime.”

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness, said: “Operation Checkpoint is a real stand-out operation, as these results prove, and I often hear really positive comments when speaking with residents.

“As well as ramped up policing efforts, crucial to its success are the local people who’ve signed up as volunteers in these neighbourhoods - local intelligence is everything. Our region boasts some really beautiful but vast and somewhat isolated places and having local people as our eyes and ears really helps in the fight against rural crime – we’re really grateful to every one of them.”