Updated: Home Secretary praises Vange police operation

7:53am Thursday 8th May 2008

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HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith has called for a pioneering police operation that started in Basildon to be rolled out across the country.

Mrs Smith said police everywhere should adopt tactics of hounding hoodies and relentlessly filming them to cut crime.

Residents have said that life on the troubled 3/4 estate in Vange has improved dramatically following the Big Brother-style Operation Leopard in January.

Ms Smith praised the operation as she spoke at a Home Office conference, Antisocial behaviour: We're not Having it, at Westminster.

She said: "Operation Leopard is exactly the sort of intensive policing that can bring persistent offenders to their senses - involving daily police visits to their homes, repeated warnings for the troublemakers and relentless filming of them and their associates throughout the day and night.

"It creates an environment where those responsible for antisocial behaviour have no room for manoeuvre and nowhere to hide, where the tables are turned on offenders so those who harass our communities are themselves harried and harassed."

Officers have been out filming youngsters four times in areas in Basildon, Laindon and Canvey. They recently received funding to carry out 13 more operations in Basildon.

FULL REPORT IN FRIDAY'S ECHO

* Click on the link below for a video interview with Jacqui Smith