The Green Shoots of Crime Reduction - "Go Gordon!" (No, I mean really, GO)

I got a message from a local police officer yesterday via the Neighbourhood Watch alert system. I was told that a group of travellers had moved into the area and to be on the lookout as they would most likely be touting for work. This is good advice because, statistically, when these traveller groups arrive, you could almost watch the reports for artifice crime go up before your very eyes. The old and vulnerable being at particular risk. It was funny, because when I wanted to issue such a message across the area I used to police, less than a decade ago, I was slapped down by my superintendent for even suggesting such a `crime prevention` message as it was `too sensitive and we'd have their lawyers onto us`. The fact that I could produce the previous 3 years figures to show the spike in crime, directly overlapped by the period of their occupancy in our area, was to no avail. Perhaps things are indeed looking up for crime reduction, like Gordon Brown said yesterday? Update, 2nd Oct: Oops, spoke too soon. New message from Neighbourhood Watch at the police station, theft of horses and horse boxes has just started in the area. Not bad, we managed almost a week before it started, last time.