Birmingham Christmas Market crackdown as police target city centre criminals

Specialist police officers have been sent to Birmingham to look out for Christmas criminals as thousands head to the city centre. With the Frankfurt Christmas Market already in full swing for more than a week, West Midlands Police is using Project Servator officers to stop crime, from petty thefts right up to terrorism.

Project Servator teams carry out ‘regular and unpredictable deployments’ and use a range of resources – some which can be seen, such as dogs, drone and vehicle checkpoints. And other resources that are ‘much harder to spot’, like plain clothes officers and CCTV (closed circuit television) and ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) monitoring.

These officers are part of BAU (business as usual) policing, regular patrols that take place around the city centre. During the week some five arrests were made from racist abuse, attacks on police, shoplifting and knife possession.

Read more: Frankfurt Christmas markets visitors asked to do one thing by police

On Monday (November 4), a 30-year-old man from Birmingham was arrested for racially-aggravated public order, and just minutes a 34-year-old man was arrested for shoplifting who was also wanted for a number of theft offences.

During the first Project Servator deployment of the day on Wednesday (November 6), a 29-year-old man from Birmingham was arrested for possession of Class B drugs and assaulting an emergency worker after he attempted to avoid our specially trained officers.

While on n Thursday (November 7) a further two people were arrested by officers after attempting to avoid high-visibility patrols. A 41-year-old man was arrested for shoplifting and a 16-year-old boy for possession of a bladed article.

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Inspector Christian Harrison from Birmingham’s city centre policing team, said: “We’ve started to see lots of people heading into the city to enjoy festivities with their friends, families and colleagues on the run up to Christmas. Our specially-trained Project Servator officers have been deploying across the city centre and the Christmas markets and have swiftly arrested five people over the course of the week.

“As well as increased patrols by our dedicated city centre policing team as we see footfall increase, Project Servator officers will continue to proactively look out for suspicious activity as we want everyone heading into the city centre to have a safe and enjoyable time.”