West Yorkshire Police's Trojan Bus team tackles anti-social behaviour in Wakefield

Special bus patrols carrying police officers on board once again proved successful in targeting anti-social behaviour (ASB) over the Mischief period in Wakefield.
By Leanne Clarke
Published 29th Nov 2021, 09:56 BST
Known as ‘Trojan Buses’, the aim was to pro-actively target hotspot areas of ASB and youth crime across the district during this busy period.Known as ‘Trojan Buses’, the aim was to pro-actively target hotspot areas of ASB and youth crime across the district during this busy period.
Known as ‘Trojan Buses’, the aim was to pro-actively target hotspot areas of ASB and youth crime across the district during this busy period.

Known as ‘Trojan Buses’, the aim was to pro-actively target hotspot areas of ASB and youth crime across the district during this busy period.

Wakefield District Police in partnership with Arriva Yorkshire and Wakefield Council deployed two Trojan buses across the district to deter incidents of ASB and criminal damage.

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Plain clothed police officers, special constables, council youth workers and ASB officers travelled on the buses, whilst Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) followed them in an unmarked vehicle in an attempt to prevent and deter any escalation of ASB and crime in the community.

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Sgt Lisa Beedel of the Wakefield Partnership Hub, said: “The use of buses, plain-clothed staff and officers a made it easier to get closer to those causing issues and proactively target groups and individuals."

Police dispersed a number of youths causing nuisance in Airedale, Castleford town centre and Pontefract, and gave words of advice to other groups in these and surrounding areas.

"Whilst the Youth Workers and ASB officers proactively engaged young people to educate on the consequences of crime and escalating behaviours in the community, it gave us the opportunity to divert young people to other activities that had been arranged in the community."

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Collectively the team engaged with over 150 young people across the district.

“The youths that we dealt with were surprised to see the bus service carrying police officers and youth workers,” added Sgt Beedel.

“We have a close partnership working with Arriva and Wakefield Council. I want to thank them for the support they have shown us again this year with this Operation. Our Special Constabulary were a great support during this operation, allowing front line officers and our NPT’s to continue their core policing duties”.

Youth worker ‘Simmie’ added: “It was good to see youth workers and police working together to keep people safe. We hope to build a bridge between the police and young people and last night was a perfect example of how we can achieve that.”