Humberside Police off-road motorbike officers, drone pilot specialists and Rural Task Force officers joined in a coordinated day of action
A Humberside Police officer has said he does not want members of the public to waste money buying e-scooters, which are illegal on public highways in the area. The force held a day of targeted action on May 28 to root out the likes of anti-social behaviour and nuisance motorbikes. On this occasion, Scunthorpe, Brigg and surrounding rural areas saw police Rural Task Force, Op Yokohama off-road motorbike officers and specialist trained drone pilots deployed in coordinated action.
Police officers talked through the type of incidents they respond to and the recent bringing in-house of drone operations. An officer with drone training also suggested businesses selling e-scooters, while not acting illegally, are being potentially “morally and ethically questionable”, given the ban on these vehicles on public highways in the Humberside Police force area.
“We’re bringing together various resources from across the force,” said Pete Musgrave, Neighbourhood Inspector for Scunthorpe South and Rural, explaining the day of action, before vehicles left Ashby Police Station. “Our Operation Yokohama motorbikes, we’ve got some drone capability, and we’ve got officers out in vehicles, looking for riders using electric bikes in an anti-social manner.”
PC Dan Mosley was one of the trained drone pilot specialists deployed on the day of action, along with PC Darian Hullett, Op Yellowfin lead officer in North East Lincolnshire. Since April 1, Humberside Police have deployed drones in-house, with specialist trained officers. Previously, they relied on loans of equipment and pilots.
The duo had earlier seized under Section 165 powers two e-scooters, one from three kids and another from a man who had initially driven it in the middle of a 30mph road. “Often e-scooters are the start of it and then once these kids get comfy on a scooter, they move onto a Surron, an electric bike, and then potentially progress onto full-scale motorbikes, which quite often are not owned by themselves,” PC Mosley said. He had strong views on the sale of e-scooters.
He stated the gentleman who had an e-scooter seized “was a little bit disgruntled, because he purchased them from a store. As I said to him, it’s not illegal for the store to sell them, but it’s obviously illegal to ride them on any public highway.
“I think it’s important then that whilst the shops I suppose are not doing nothing illegally wrong, maybe morally and ethically, it’s questionable. I don’t want people to waste their money when, unfortunately, they’re going to end up losing it, which was the frustration of the gentleman earlier.”
PC Hullett explained that day-to-day with the drone equipment, he responds to intelligence a significant amount, such as following up on a member of the public’s report of a person stealing motorbikes and getting footage of these being driven around an area, and then getting warrants for the stolen bikes.
The drone is flown up to 120 metres in height, can be deployed more than 500 metres away from its controller, has on board batteries for two hours’ worth of flying and officers take a portable power bank with them, enabling use for up to 12 hours. It had been deployed in the last few weeks for missing persons incidents, live jobs, firearms jobs and also large-scale events, with the pair using it for Hull City’s last regular league game.
“The drone has the capacity to livestream what’s going on and feed that back to the force control room,” PC Mosley said, which in turn helps strategic decisions be made. It also has a series of automated commands it can issue too.
Rural Task Force
After seeing the drone deployed, we joined two Humberside Police Rural Task Force officers on the day of action. It was explained the types of crime they cover varies dependent on the season, but includes crop damage, poaching, hare coursing, theft of farm machinery, and work with the Border Force over illegal trade, including in endangered species.
Asked what should an individual or organisation do if they are concerned about nuisance motorbikes in a particular area, Sergeant Paul Burnett advised: “We’d encourage them to ring 101 and use the single online hub.” He added, “If somebody wants to provide information anonymously, they can do that via Crimestoppers.”
He was clear he would never advise any member of the public to approach individuals riding the bikes. He also highlighted Op Snap to upload dashcam or mobile phone footage, and emphasised the importance of reporting.
“I’ve always been a big proponent of data. Because our budgets are really tight, resources are really tight.
“We’re addressing a much wider picture now within policing,” he added, noting new forms of offending. “We don’t have enough resources to address everything all the time all the way.
“So we need to know who’s doing what, where and when,” he said, to ideally prevent offending, but if not, to pursue offenders and have the best chance of prosecutions.
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