News

The UK's specialist road freight crime unit, TruckPol, wants to standardise the response and investigation of truck crime across all police forces in England and Wales. TruckPol has produced a document suggesting minimum standards of response and investigation for road freight crime and has sent it to police forces all over the two countries.

Some of the measures it suggests as standard include circulating details of vehicle thefts to all adjoining police forces, a comprehensive crime report,  and full details of any GPS or tracking system on the truck. Several of the recommendations by TruckPol involve taking information so it can eliminate drivers themselves from involvement.

These include checking drivers' mobile telephones for recent incoming and outgoing calls and texts, making sure the driver's statement includes how long they have been working for their employer, the exact route they took and what they did immediately following an incident. For foreign drivers, it also recommends taking fingerprints and buccal swabs in order to obtain DNA.

The TruckPol report adds that "in most cases", a detective should conduct the investigation after the crime reports are completed and that the crime should be publicised in magazines, newspapers and on the internet. It also recommends that police forces check internet auction sites to see if any of the property stolen might be offered on them.

The report says: "More and more often, property stolen in LGV  crime is being sold to unsuspecting customers via eBay." TruckPol says police figures suggest that lost vehicles and loads in the UK cost around £100 million every year.