MORE than a dozen North Yorkshire Police officers took to the streets of York in a day-long operation to trace wanted people.

Operation Surestart was aimed at locating offenders who were known to and wanted by police, but had failed to answer bail, failed to pay court-ordered fines, or whose activity had been highlighted as a concern by members of the public.

In less than 12 hours, the force’s list of about two dozen outstanding suspects had been reduced thanks to the arrests of six wanted men and women.

Sergeant Simon Pape oversaw the operation, which saw officers visit addresses in the in the city centre, Heworth, Strensall, Acomb and other areas, to track down a list of wanted people.

Sgt Pape said: “The information provided to us from the community is vital to locating offenders who use the local area as a base for their criminal activities.

York Press:

“I’m happy with how it’s turned out today. I think we’ve reduced the number and put a lot of visible presence out there, and this sends out the message people to giving us information that we act on it.”

As well as local officers, special constables and specialist operations officers took part in the event, which also saw a number of stop searches.

The operation was set up and carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, and in some cases, the addresses the force had for the wanted individuals were no longer relevant or out of date.

Information from these visits was relayed from the scene to officers at the force’s Athena House facility, and added to suspects’ records to assist future searches.

Sgt Pape said information on the whereabouts of some individuals had been provided by members of the public, which he said was invaluable to their operations.

He said: “Many thanks to those within the community that have already assisted us and we encourage others to assist us in identifying the location of those criminals using your community as a base for their criminal activities.

“Everything we’ve done today has brought us intelligence about where offenders are or aren’t living, where they frequent, who they associate with, even things like what they wear and who they socialise with so we can better identify them.”

Anyone with information on wanted individuals should contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.