BLACKPOOL is becoming known as a no-go area for travelling thieves, druggies and burglars, according to police.

Since Operation Arrival was launched this summer to target the 16 seasonal high-crime weeks, rates have plummetted 20 per cent and detection rates risen 10 per cent.

Said Supt Ian McPherson: "The message is certainly going out, outside the area, that Blackpool is not a place to come to for easy pickings. The likelihood of anyone up to no good being arrested is high."

Added Insp Kevin Toole: "Word gets back to us from travelling criminals that they are not going to Blackpool because, as they say, the police are on top."

Operation Arrival and Operation Aslan, aimed at reducing drunken yobbery, flood the town with up to 100 extra officers day and night on busy weekends. They have arrested 134 people on top of normal policing since the beginning of August, including 12 high-volume burglars, thieves or street-level drug dealers, checked 200 people on bail and breathalysed 182 motorists.

Though positive breath tests are low, the campaign has helped cut road casualties by 16.5 per cent since April, compared with the same time last year.

"That's 16.5 per cent fewer people suffering the trauma of hospital treatment or the loss of a loved one," said Supt McPherson.

The turnaround is attributed to a change in tactics in the past year to Problem Orientated Policing, aimed at preventing crime rather than reacting to it.

Police now focus on the problem as a whole, looking at the victim, the location and time of offences to see how they can deter crime and disrupt the criminal lifestyle of offenders.

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