In the latest fight against late-night crime, 24 police officers hit the evening streets in a first-of-it's-kind initiative.

Using the walk-through metal detector and two passive drug dogs the officers set up camp at The Priory on St Neots High Street in a bid to tackle the national problem of illegal drugs and knife crime.

However, out of the 720 people who entered the pub, which was working in collaboration with the police, just one was arrested for carrying class a drugs, and one was cautioned for possession of an offensive weapon.

Sergeant Rachel Gourlay and PC Neil English, of the St Neots and District Neighbourhood Police Team, launched the operation after the problem of St Neots's nighttime economy was identified by residents as a priority for police to tackle.

However, PC English believes the few people caught actually breaking the law, and the cooperative way the public behaved towards the operation, show that the historical nighttime problems of the down are on the decrease.

PC English said: "Deciding what we can do about nighttime problems is a very difficult one, because it's very random and sporadic. So we decided to do something very high vis.
"We just wanted to show people we are here, we do police St Neots and to show the world we are doing our job and responding to the needs of the public."

>> Read more in this weeks Town Crier, out Thursday, July 3.