Police target burglars in early-morning raids (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Police target burglars in early-morning raids

1:25pm Friday 10th August 2012 in News By Graeme Hetherington

SUSPECTED burglars and thieves were targeted during early-morning raids across the Redcar and Cleveland area.

Dozens of officers attended addresses in Redcar, Guisborough , Grangetown and North Skelton looking for known criminals as Cleveland Police continues its crackdown on burglary.

Officers forced their way into a house on High Street West, Redcar, and were forced to crawl through the gap in the door before leaving without their man.

However, they were able to contact the man and make arrangements for him to voluntarily hand himself into the police.

Their next destination was a guest house in the town where again they were unable to arrest their target.

Detective Sergeant Nigel McCartney, who led Operation Committment, believes the early raids send out a message that the police are determined to stamp out burglary and theft.

He said: “The whole idea of the operation is to target people who are responsible for crime and have them arrested and brought to justice as soon as possible. If we can get these people in custody it will stop them doing crime.

“These people we are looking for are repeat offenders, these are not people who have committed a crime for the first time some of them are quite prolific.”