West Midlands robbery rates drop after police crackdown
Over a thousand arrests and a sharp drop in knifepoint robberies reported as Operation Ruby targets offenders and boosts patrols across the region.
West Midlands Police say they’ve made more than one thousand robbery arrests in just over six months, following a major push to tackle crime and keep communities safe.
There’s been a twenty-eight per cent drop in knifepoint robberies and a twenty-five per cent fall in personal robbery incidents across the region, thanks to extra patrols in hotspot areas and teams working together to catch offenders.
Operation Ruby, launched around eighteen months ago, has played a key role—over five hundred warrants have been carried out in the last year, targeting suspects and acting on community intelligence. Local policing teams are now a more visible presence, working alongside groups like the Project Guardian Taskforce, which focuses on serious youth violence and knife crime.
Recent court cases have seen offenders jailed, including a woman in her thirties who attacked and robbed an elderly man in Stourbridge, and a gang of six who were sentenced to more than sixty years between them for armed robberies, car thefts and burglaries.
Detective Chief Inspector Gagy Bedi, who leads Operation Ruby, said: "We don't underestimate the impact of robbery.
"It is an awful crime which can lead to victims being put in fear, threatened with a weapon, and forced to hand over their personal belongings.
"We launched Operation Ruby to reduce offences but also identify those involved much sooner than we had done previously. We can then prevent further offending in our local policing areas.
"We have teams all working to prevent these crimes, from neighbourhood officers to Project Guardian, and identify any trends. We want to ensure we're in the right place to stop offences and make arrests."
Police are urging people to take steps to protect themselves and their belongings, with more crime prevention advice available on the West Midlands Police website.