Crackdown aims to drive down car crime

Officers throughout East Dunbartonshire are involved in Operation Quarterlight, which aims to reduce the number of stolen cars and thefts from vehicles.

A significant number of cars are broken into across the East Dunbartonshire and Greater Glasgow areas with valuable and personal items being stolen by opportunistic thieves.

Detective Inspector Jim Bradley said: “There’s no doubt that having personal items or personal information stolen from your car is a massive inconvenience and can have major repercussions on you and your personal life.

“We have launched Operation Quarterlight to proactively target this type of crime with our ultimate aim to reduce the number of victims affected by this crime and arrest those responsible.

“We know that many thieves take advantage of circumstances and we are asking our communities to work with us to drive down the number of incidents.

“Together, let’s make it as difficult as possible for criminals.

“Don’t leave anything in your car which could attract unwanted attention and leave you with a smashed car window. Don’t make it easy for them and don’t let your car be the vehicle that the opportunistic thief targets.”

As part of Operation Quarterlight, which is being implemented throughout Scotland, four new plain clothes teams have been established in the Glasgow area, one of which will cover East Dunbartonshire, to proactively target those individuals involved in vehicle crime.

Additionally, officers from Safer Communities are working closely with partners to offer crime prevention advice. Officers are also being deployed on high visibility patrols in areas identified by police as being particularly problematic.Forensic information is also being used to identify offenders.

Police are working with Neighbourhood Watch Scotland to raise awareness of vehicle security and Operation Quarterlight is already seeing positive results.

More than 30 people have been arrested for alleged vehicle crimes with 177 offences being detected. Additionally, a further 22 people have been arrested on outstanding warrants.