POLICE will be at Harpenden railway station tomorrow (Thursday) targeting criminals coming from Luton and London as part of an operation to improve community safety. It follows a similarly high-visibility police presence in St Albans last month in partn

POLICE will be at Harpenden railway station tomorrow (Thursday) targeting criminals coming from Luton and London as part of an operation to improve community safety.

It follows a similarly high-visibility police presence in St Albans last month in partnership with British Transport Police (BTP) which resulted in four arrests - one for drink driving, one for assault and two for possession of cannabis.

There were also 12 cannabis warnings, two vehicle seizures and 179 stop searches.

Said Intervention Inspector Nick Caveney: "Although commuters are only really aware of the high-visibility police presence days, we have plain-clothed police officers at the mainline train stations at other times.

"We have gathered intelligence and hopefully deterred would-be criminals from coming into St Albans and Harpenden as well as making some arrests."

Knife wands, which are hand-held metal detectors, passive drugs dogs and the mobile police station will be in Harpenden with various police teams including neighbourhood officers and covert officers who have been working with BTP.

The operation, which started on February 14, was put together following an increase in street robberies - 15 between October 1, 2008, and December 31, 2008, representing a 67 per cent increase over the previous year.