Festive crime falls (From Warrington Guardian)

Festive crime falls

POLICE cut Christmas thefts and drunkenness by a quarter this year.

Crime analysis of Widnes and Runcorn town centre's and Halton Lea shows thefts went down 29 per cent compared to last year and night-time drunkenness went down 25 per cent.

The police usually put on operations at Christmas but this year there were two separate campaigns.

Operation Blue Christmas saw police and community support officers carry out high visibility patrols in the retail areas and town centre car parks of Runcorn and Widnes.

As well as leading to the drop in thefts, this created an 18 per cent decrease in criminal damage to vehicles and a 38 per cent decrease in thefts from vehicles compared to last year.

Operation Yellow Christmas targeted drinking between 7pm and 3am.