SCORES of police swooped on Accrington on Wednesday as part of a day-long crackdown on crime.
Operation Except saw officers pull out all the stops in a bid to catch offenders including suspected drug dealers.
Around 40 extra officers were drafted in for the crackdown, in which a number of properties were raided, including a house in the Blackburn Road area.
Only a small amount of cannabis was seized from one of the targeted properties and no arrests were made.
But Inspector Julian Platt, head of Accrington Police, said the exercise had still been a success, saying: "We are fairly pleased with how the day has gone from a community reassurance point of view.
"One of our main aims with this operation was to disrupt criminal activity in Accrington, something which we have succeeded in doing."
Automated Number Plate Reading technology (ANPR) was used throughout the day to target travelling criminals intent on committing offe-nces in Hyndburn.
Inspector Chris Hayhurst, officer in charge of the Operation Except team, said: "The public want to see officers on the streets fighting crime and these crackdown days are just about as visible as you can get.
"We targeted people who we know are committing crime but also those travelling in from other areas who may see us as a soft touch. I think it is very clear that we are certainly not.
"Criminals in Accrington will be under no illusion that we mean business. We have demonstrated that very clearly today. The message to them is very simple - we will be back and we won't give you any warning."
Operation Except began in March last year, originally as a month-long crackdown on crime. It was continued due to its success, with 2,287 people arrested in its first year.
Inspector Platt added: "The officers on the Operation Except team have proved they are effective in fighting crime and a welcome addition to the usual resources we deploy in Accr-ington and the surrounding areas.
"It is important that we get as much information from the community as we can to ensure we can keep up the momentum of these crackdowns.
"We rely heavily on information from the community to allow us to continue with this sort of high-profile enforcement activity and I am pleased that the community beat managers have enjoyed the co-operation of the public in gathering more intelligence. Accrington is already a safe place to be and we want the community to help us make it safer."
Superintendent Warren Turner said: "These operations involve a lot of additional manpower and they always have a big impact."
