SHOPS and businesses in Ilkley have this week launched an initiative to crack down on pre-Christmas crime in town.

The Ilkley Business Watch radio network went into operation on Tuesday to enable businesses to keep up-to-date with the activities of shoplifters.

All participating traders are given a radio which they can use to warn others of

suspected shoplifters at work in Ilkley. The town's police station monitors the transmissions, and can send in officers if they are needed.

Sgt Esther Hobbs, of Ilkley Police, believes the arrival of the radios has come in time to make an impact on the usual increase in shoplifting seen around towns during the festive season.

Business Watch schemes are run in other communities around the Keighley Police Division, and Sgt Hobbs hopes bringing the initiative to Ilkley - and encouraging

businesses to pool their information -

will help them to spot and track the

criminals.

She said: "Christmas is coming, and there's already examples of the radios being put to good use. Very few criminals can afford to live in Ilkley. The shoplifters come from far and wide, they're travelling criminals."

Sgt Hobbs believes the system is crucial as so many other towns - including Otley and Keighley - already have similar

systems, and the shoplifters are being driven out to areas such as Ilkley, which have not previously had the protection of a Business Watch scheme.

She said there had already been shoplifting incidents in Ilkley in recent weeks, and she hopes to spread the message as quickly as possible that Ilkley businesses are well-prepared for shoplifters.

At a Business Watch meeting in Ilkley's Clarke Foley Centre on Monday, businessmen and women volunteered to stand on the new group's committee, and police demonstrated how to use the radios, in preparation for the following day.

The traders have devised 'callsigns' which enable them to identify who is

transmitting.

Plans are also being drawn up for high-visibility signs and posters which businesses can display as a further deterrent to the would-be thieves.

Police will also distribute pictures of known criminals for the use of participating traders.

Keighley community constable PC Paul Sullivan handed out the new radios and showed staff how to use them.

He asked businesses to encourage their staff to use the radio when needed, and not be afraid to make a transmission.

He added that police are able to 'stun' any one of the radios if it has been stolen, or if the user is abusing the system.