MORE than 4,000 people have been arrested in North Yorkshire as part of a regional crime crackdown.

Police in the county also handed out 3,500 fixed penalty notices and carried out 147 warrants during Operation Impact, which finished on Sunday.

The operation was today hailed a success by North Yorkshire Police as it was revealed that crime figures dropped by ten per cent in August and 12 per cent in September.

The results have been attributed mainly to Operation Impact and the road policing initiative Operation Helical.

Operation Impact, which started on August 6, was a major crime-busting strategy involving North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside police forces.

The Home Office provided extra cash to help fund the operation, which aimed to reduce crime and increase public confidence.

Chief Superintendent Colin Taylor, who headed up Operation Impact in North Yorkshire, said: "We're delighted to have achieved such positive results through Operation Impact, which really has achieved its aim of giving criminals nowhere to hide. Through Impact, we've focused on reducing crime using every means possible - from awareness-raising initiatives in the community to high-visibility patrols, search warrants and tough, targeted campaigns.

"There's no doubt that this approach has worked in significantly cutting crime across North Yorkshire and the City of York. More importantly, it has provided us with an excellent foundation on which we can build a sustainable legacy of crime reduction. Our focus will now be on making sure the successes of Operation Impact are built upon to ensure the pressure is maintained on the minority of criminals who persist in blighting our communities."

Initiatives to reduce road crime have been hailed as one of the biggest regional successes of the campaign, with more than 1,000 cars taken off the road across Yorkshire and Humberside in the two months since the crackdown began. More than 200 were in North Yorkshire.

Chief Supt Taylor added: "We have always worked very closely with our neighbouring forces, but Operation Impact has built on that partnership and the results demonstrate how successful this approach has been.

"It's a way of working which we shall certainly be developing further in the future."

A "considerable amount" of information about criminal activity was gathered during Operation Impact and police have pledged to put that to good use in a bid to continue cutting crime over the coming weeks.

Anyone who wants to inform officers about crime in their area can phone North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 247 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.


Arrest numbers

The number of arrests is just slightly more than during the same period last year - up to 4,243 from 4,223 - but crime has fallen by 11.4 per cent over the eight-week period.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said this demonstrated the "preventative" aspect of Operation Impact - meaning fewer crimes were committed so there were fewer arrests to be made.

She said that equated to 991 fewer victims of crime.

The sanction detection rate - the number of reported crimes resulting in an offender being charged, summonsed or cautioned - has also improved over the two months, up on the same period last year by 7.2 per cent to 32.5 per cent.