Greater Manchester Police is launching the initiative to increase the chances of convicting robbers through the use of the latest forensic technology.
Operation Liaison – part of the Vanguard initiative – will see extra firearms officers accompanying cash movements across the area.
Another successful tactic called ‘follow that van’ keeps potential robbers guessing whether or not a cash delivery van is likely to get a police escort. Patrolling officers who come upon a CIT delivery while on general duties and not committed to another job, will follow and observe the van on its run.
Through Vanguard, police are also fighting commercial robberies on other fronts. These include developing best practice and training with the security industry to make them harder targets and sharing intelligence and evidence gathering to target and seize the proceeds of crime. Police are also lobbying courts for the re-classification of these crimes with harsher sentences for those who use extreme violence.
Also being used is SmartWater, the coded forensic marking fluid that can be sprayed automatically onto criminals or cash so that they can be later linked to that crime.
