Police are more used to investigating crimes on behalf of the public, but they too can be the victims, as Owen Amos reports

HANDCUFFS, police hats, and hundreds of pounds in cash are among the items that have been stolen from police across the region.

Other items taken in the past 18 months from police stations and cars include a bicycle, a hacksaw and, bizarrely, a clay pigeon.

Northumbria Police were targeted most frequently. They reported 37 items stolen, compared to a total of only nine from Durham, Cleveland, and North Yorkshire Police.

The information was revealed after a Freedom of Information request by The Northern Echo.

The four forces were asked:

● What had been reported stolen from their stations and cars since January 1, last year

● When they were stolen

● Where they were stolen

● Whether the goods were recovered, and

● If the thieves were caught.

Durham Police reported only two items stolen from their stations and cars. The first was in October last year, when a purse, jewellery and £45 in cash were taken from a police station.

A month later, £120 in cash was taken from another police station.

In both cases, the goods were not recovered and the crime unsolved.

Durham Police declined to specify the stations targeted.

Cleveland Police reported sixthefts, but also declined to specify locations and dates. In the 2006/2007 financial year, a police flat hat, baton, kit bag and overalls were stolen from the force's cars. No one was caught.

Officers did, however, arrest and charge someone who stole two police hats, worth £58, from a police car.

Of Northumbria Police's 37 thefts, 11 were "planted" sat nav systems, designed to lure and catch thieves.

Others, which were not planted, included a bicycle stolen from Forest Hall police station, Newcastle, on November 18, last year.

It was not recovered, but someone was arrested and charged.

The theft of a registration plate from a police car in Gateshead, in January last year, remains unsolved, as does the clay pigeon theft, from Tranwell, near Morpeth, last December.

On November 13, last year, a hacksaw was stolen from a police car parked in Crown Road, Sunderland.

Someone was arrested and charged, but the saw was not recovered.

North Yorkshire Police reported only one theft from police stations and cars. An item worth £5 - officers would not reveal what - was taken in April last year from the "central area".

The mystery item was not recovered, and no charges were made.