Thames Valley Police launches off-road motorcycle team

A police force has created an off-road team to help officers chase suspects who use quadbikes and motorbikes.

The three riders join Thames Valley Police's joint operations roads policing unit with the aim of tackling anti-social behaviour in the region.

It means officers will be able to travel through areas that patrol cars cannot access, supporting neighbourhood policing and rural crime teams.

It forms part of the new Operation Trail initiative.

Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber, who funded the three bikes, told the BBC: "This is a tactic that will allow the police to get to some of those hard-to-reach areas and pursue criminals as the public expect."

He added: "This means we can really take the fight to those criminals who perhaps think they've found a way of evading the police."

The team is the result of a wider £120,000 investment into different types of motorbikes for the force.

Mr Barber said residents had raised concerns about criminality "away from the public gaze... in areas they don't see patrolled enough".

Risk assessments would be carried out so the bikes were deployed "proportionately and safely", he said.

The team is expected to tackle the illegal use of vehicles off-road, such as in parks, and thefts in rural areas, after the force estimated £4m of goods had gone missing in the past 18 months.

Insp Scott Long said it would also enhance the force's ability when searching for vulnerable people on open land.

He said they would be particularly useful on "bridleways, farm tracks and agricultural land".

He said trials had already been carried out near Reading where a drug-dealing operation and illegal off-road vehicle use had been disrupted.

A review is planned in six months when the number of team members could be increased.

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