Police pay repeated night-time visits to criminals in a bid to curb offending

Police in South Yorkshire said they had a list of offenders who are subject to the visits which had been built up through information received from the public and other intelligence.

Typically police on an afternoon or night shift will pay known criminals a visit in a bid to interrupt their pattern of behaviour and to let them know that they are under scrutiny from the force.

Chief Supt Liz Watson, South Yorkshire Police’s operations manager in Barnsley, said at any one time there would be a list of between two and 10 offenders receiving visits in each of the force’s four districts.

She added: “Obviously if there are good reasons not to do it, such as young children at the address, we will look at other options, but this is one of the tools we can use against persistent offenders.

“It allows us to find out all sorts of details, such as who is living with them, what kind of car they drive, what time they tend to go out committing crime and even what kind of clothing they wear.

“All offenders included are properly assessed through our tasking process and through intelligence – it’s not just that we get an inkling that somebody is up to no good and decide to go after them every night.”

Police said that although the idea was designed to have some kind of punitive effect, it was also aimed at “engaging” with criminals and pointing out to them ways that they could move away from criminality.

It also allowed police to match information about criminals who were not at home at the time a crime was committed with any descriptions given by witnesses or victims.

Chief Supt Watson added: “Unfortunately there is a hard core of people who we struggle with at times. We want these offenders to realise that there are better things they can be doing with their time.

“The vast percentage of crime is committed by a very small percentage of people and rather than just react to 999 calls, we will try and engage with these people.

“Sometimes they will complain that it is harassment, because we are there knocking on their door every night but we are trying to get this message across that they are not going to be given the freedom to go and commit crime.”