Police have shared footage of the shocking moment a suspected moped thief is rammed off his bike following a high speed chase through east London.
Dash-cam footage shows a police car smashing into the motorbike in Victoria Park in Hackney, as officers carry out the so called ‘tactical contact’ in full view of pedestrians on a busy street.
The incident was filmed as part of a channel 5 documentary and captures in graphic detail the Met Police’s tough new tactics to crackdown on the scooter crime wave that has plagued the capital in recent months.
The hard-line tactics were rolled out across the country last year, following a surge in incidents involving thugs on mopeds grabbing people’s phones, watches and bags, as well as smashing their way into jewellery shops.
Last month a gang in London, were jailed for a total of 68 years.
Scotland Yard detectives say the methods have helped cut moped crime by 52 per cent in a year.
However, the tactics have come in for some criticism.
More recently the case of PC Edwin Sutton made the news, after he faced a police disciplinary for knocking down a thief on a motorbike. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in May.
The Met Police have launched a special taskforce dubbed Operation Venice to deal with moped gangs.
In the shared footage, officers are filmed responding to reports of a suspect on a red moped in a Hi-Vis vest.
They are then shown racing to where the suspect was last spotted, with on board camera filming the moment a police officer deliberately rams his vehicle into him, sending the rider into the air.
The suspect attempts to flee, before an officer sprays him with a high tech ‘water pistol’, used to mark suspects with invisible liquid that can later be used to link them to a crime.
The aerosol cans drenches the culprit with a forensically-tagged liquid called SelectaDNA, which remains on skin, clothes and vehicles for three months, and also glows under UV light.
Several officers are then seen grappling the suspect to the ground, before he is handcuffed and arrested.
The rider doesn’t appear to have sustained injured after the crash, and is treated by ambulance crews.
An officer tells the Channel 5 documentary Snatch and Grab: Moped Gangs on the Rampage: ‘That is one of the many strands of options we have to us.
‘In this case it was simply justified for the manner of riding, on a footpath, through a park, endangering people’s lives.
‘We can’t allow that to continue.’
The method has received criticism from Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.
The Hackney MP tweeted: ‘Knocking people off bikes is potentially very dangerous. It shouldn’t be legal for anyone.
‘Police are not above the law.’
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