Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick said two thieves had broken bones as a result of the new tactic
The Met Police’s new tactics for dealing with moped crime have left two people with broken bones.
During a pursuit police are now empowered to ram mopeds with their own vehicles, bumping the rider into the road.
A series of encounters where these methods were deployed, captured by dashboard cameras, was published by the Met in November.
Dashcam footage shows the Met Police are using new tactics to ram criminals off their mopeds pic.twitter.com/NqlVGxXd7g
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) November 23, 2018
Commissioner Cressida Dick said the tactic is in use because the Met needed to “put the fear back into the criminal.”
Disk said pursuit drivers are “supremely well trained” and ramming results in only a “very small” number of injuries.
Speaking to Channel she said: “At least one person who broke their arm and another who had some sort of break.
“My officers make life-and-death decisions every day of the week, they’re very accountable.
“They make the best possible decisions. We are in a risk business.
“We’ve had to put the fear back into the criminal.
“These are people who have been repeatedly left in no doubt whatsoever that there’s a police car right behind them.
“If you look over your shoulder and drive on as fast as possible, putting the public in danger, you should expect we will come after you.”
The new tactics are part of Operation Venice: tactical contact, scrambler motorbikes, DNA spray and stinger devices to deflate tyres.
Latest year-on-year figures for moped crime show that in January 2017 to October 2017 there were 19,455 offences across London compared to January 2018 to October 2018 when there were 12,419 offences – a reduction of 44 per cent.
