A CAMPAIGN has been launched to highlight the work of West Mercia Police in tackling transit van robberies.

Follow That Van is a force-wide campaign launched again this week to highlight work being done by police officers to protect security vehicles carrying cash across the West Mercia Police force area, which includes Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

There has only been one crime linked to cash-in-transit vehicles across the whole of West Mercia this year – an attempted robbery of a security vehicle at Morrisons supermarket in Shrewsbury earlier this month.

There were four cash-in-transit incidents reported in West Mercia in 2007 and four in 2008.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Colquhoun, of West Mercia Police headquarters’ CID department, said: “Cash-in-transit robberies are rare in West Mercia and the force does all it can to keep it that way.

“The offence is still taken extremely seriously, including launching the Follow That Van Campaign this month, a campaign that we have run for several years.”

“These kinds of robberies are far from victimless crimes as drivers can be left extremely shaken by incidents and, as in other parts of the country, injured by offenders.”

Dick Hanks, police liaison manager for the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), which is based in Worcester, said: “While cash-in-transit attacks are relatively rare in West Mercia, they remain a major problem across other areas in the UK.”