Operation Vortex

A suspect being led to a police van

Over one hundred police officers were involved in a high profile policing operation in Rochdale this evening (Friday 29 October 2010).

The operation was launched in a bid to tackle issues such as anti-social behaviour, burglary and drug dealing.

Rochdale Online reporter Laura Wild joined the police tonight to experience first-hand how these problems are being dealt with. Find out how she got on...

I met with the police at Oulder Hill School at 6.00pm. 120 officers were taking part in the operation, so a big venue was needed.

As I pulled into the car park I was shocked at the number of police vehicles there. I knew it must be something big.

I joined the officers in the theatre where they were briefed on what would happen.

The briefing for 'Super Vortex – Rochdale Division' explained the ‘zones’ which the police would be concentrating on and what they hoped to achieve.

The three zones were Spotland, Falinge and Deeplish.

The reasons for the zones varied between levels of crime, burglary and anti-social behaviour.

The police were keen to show their presence and let the people of Rochdale know they are acting.

Inspector Dave Lees explained that the aim was to reduce crime and increase public confidence.

As the briefing came to a close the variety of police personel on the operation became clear. These included police horses, police dogs, tactical aid units, fire arms units, decoy cars, the police helicopter and the licensing department.

Chief Superintendent John O’Hare spoke about various problems, he also referred to the incident in the early hours of Sunday 17 October when a man drove through a night club crowd and knocked them down like skittles.

Speaking about the operation Mr O’Hare said: “These people, if we can get them, deserve to be banged up over the weekend and in court on Monday.”

Once everyone was clear on what they were doing they headed off in their vehicles to their assigned locations.

I joined PC Scott McLoughlin; he was the driver for the evening. To begin with we followed the Tactical Aid Unit to an address where they would be executing a warrant.

The warrant was in relation to property, possibly stolen. The officers searched the house and after some time arrested a man for possessing Class C drugs. He was taken into custody by police.

We then spent some time driving to locations across Rochdale, including the town centre and Falinge. Everywhere seemed very quiet.

In the time that I was out with the police one person was arrested for possessing Class C drugs, one person was arrested for burglary and one person was arrested for a public order offence.

Although I did not see lots of ‘action’, I did see the time, effort and resources the police are putting into dealing with problems in Rochdale.

A further update, including arrests made, will be published on Rochdale Online when the information is available.