The deployment ran between the beginning of April to 6 May.

Officers from West Midlands Police’s proactive crime team - Operation Skybridge - have delivered significant results during a targeted deployment in Selly Oak, driving down burglary and vehicle crime.

The deployment, which ran between the beginning of April to 6 May, focused on tackling rising levels of burglary and vehicle-related offences across the Selly Oak ward.

During the operation, overall serious acquisitive crime (SAC) fell by 43 per-cent, with recorded SAC offences reducing from 86 offences before deployment to 49 afterwards.

Burglary reduced by 70 per-cent during the deployment, and vehicle crime decreased by 11 per-cent

Skybridge, made up of plain clothed and uniformed officers, deploys to different areas of Birmingham to carry out proactive enforcement and use a range of tactics to act on issues concerning the local community.

While in Aston the team completed over 15 dedicated shifts focused on disrupting offenders, supporting neighbourhood teams, and gathering intelligence.

During the deployment, officers made 15 arrests which led to 24 offences charged.

The team also benefited from strong community support, with five intelligence submissions received directly from members of the public.

The team work closely with the local neighbourhood team in each area to understand the priorities and concerns of the local people.

Sergeant Gareth Johnson, from the Skybridge team, said: "The results from this deployment yet again demonstrate the positive impact of the Skybridge team in reducing crime, targeting offenders, and keeping communities safe.

"We will continue to work across Birmingham to build on this success and respond to local priorities.

"The team work together excellently, and have shown that in each area we target, we are able to cause disruption to repeated crime.”

Operation Skybridge is a serious and acquisitive crime (SAC) team, and exclusively prevent and detect crimes such as burglary, robbery, vehicle and drug crime in the allocated area they are positioned in.

The team will be working Operation Fearless in the Soho area with officers looking forward to building on the success of the Selly Oak deployment and delivering further positive outcomes for local communities.