POLICE have hailed a 20 per cent fall in robberies a year after launching a targeted operation to tackle the problem.
Police established Operation Zeus last February in the face of an 18 per cent increase in robberies during the previous 12 months.
Zeus involved the creation of a team of two sergeants and 12 constables who were tasked exclusively with investigating robberies, rather than having to rush away to deal with other 999 calls.
The success of the two month operation led it to be extended indefinitely, a decision which appears to be having further positive results.
According to figures released by the Met this week, in the 12 months since the start of the operation there were 1,506 'personal' robberies, compared to 1,887 in the same period of the previous year - a drop of 20 per cent.
Detection rates - in which police charge a suspect or issue a caution - have also increased from 11.8 per cent to 16.9 per cent.
The Met said its officers have also been engaging with young people to educate them on how best to "avoid being targeted by thieves".
This includes encouraging young people to register their gadgets and phones on the Immobilise website.
Detective Inspector Brian Hobbs, head of Croydon Police's robbery squad, said: "When we launched Operation Zeus last year, our aim was to try and reduce robbery by 10% and to increase our detection rate to 15%. Initially, we ran the operation for a three-month period and during that time we'd achieved both our aims.
"However, because the tactics were so successful it didn't make sense to stop what we were doing and Operation Zeus has continued ever-since.
"The challenge for us was to try and sustain the early progress we had made over the whole year, but the results we can see now show that our approach is having a really positive effect and ultimately there have been almost 400 fewer victims of robbery in Croydon."
