Once again, thank you to everyone who has signed and shared this petition and thank you to all all the councillors and MPs that are speaking out and standing up for their community. We are starting to get the word out and we are seeing media attention at both local and national levels, but there is still work to be done as the team is not yet safe.
There has finally been a response to media enquiries from police leaders stating "the work carried out by these stand alone functions will still continue", sadly this a complete lie! The functions carried out by the off road bike team will simply not continue if they are disbanded.
At present the team of PC's and PCSOs work together and work with the community to tackle bike related crimes all over the city. They go where they are needed, when they are needed. Moving them to NPT will completely tie them to one area and one area only.
If your bike is stolen in West Leeds, and the team are covering South Leeds, then it's tough. Yes the team may still have access to bikes, but it isn't the access to bikes that's the problem, it's the ability to be reactive and proactive in dealing with bike related crime wherever and wherever it happens.
Robberies on the canal? Sorry the bikers are only in East Leeds today.
Stolen bike tracking to the West area? Sorry the bikers only work South.
On top of this, if the team becomes NPT, they will be dealing with NPT problems in only ONE specific area, everywhere else will suffer. The PCs and PCSOs on this is team, will be sent all over, their knowledge, their expertise and their work as a team will be diluted and wasted.
We cannot make this clearer, these plans will serve only to weaken West Yorkshire Police and embolden the criminals (they're already celebrating on TikTok).
Yes, the police need the money, but more importantly they need to do there duty and keep us all safe! The money means nothing if they can't look after the communities they serve!