By Vineet Malik | July 19, 2021 | Bradford, England
Crime in Bradford goes unchecked, makes the city among most lawless in England
It was around nine on the intervening night of 14 and 15 July at Bradford Interchange, while I twiddled my thumbs and hung around to board a bus for London Heathrow.
As the sunlight disappeared in darkness, hoodlums continued to storm the waiting area at the bus station.
Access to the bus station was like a thoroughfare that made the area unchecked.
Absence of manual screening of passengers or ticket scanning machines around that time made the premises walkway for trespassers.
Some trespassers screamed while passengers sat tight in fear.
A grossly overweight, conspicuous individual, must be in mid-twenties put his hand into trash bins one after an another. His suspicious behavior continued uninterrupted for almost 30 minutes.
This time, it wasn’t a trash bin but an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) placed in close proximity to the rear door of the bus station that caught the trespasser's attention. He desperately fiddled with the ATM and spent good five minutes to somehow tamper its algorithm but his attempt foiled.
Welcome to Bradford
Suddenly, a voice echoed in the background, “Welcome to Bradford”.
Bradford is the third city of the West Yorkshire region after Leeds and Sheffield. The population of Bradford was predicted to reach 5,32,740 by end of this month.
Bradford is the Fourth most Dangerous City in England
Given the spate of high crime rate, Bradford is the fourth most dangerous city with 131 crimes per 1,000 population and was ranked as first worst to live in the United Kingdom in the recent past.
There were 69,441 recorded crimes in Bradford district this year as per Office for National Statistics Data, 2,015 incidents of several offences while criminal damage and arson stood at 7,271. Crime pertaining to drugs saw 2,613 incidents along with violent offences.
The city has been in the news for wrong reasons as most gruesome crimes committed by criminals have become ongoing dinner conversation topics among people residing in the city.
In a recent incident happened on 12 July, an old women aged 60 years was robbed on a roadside in broad daylight, while she was waiting to board a bus on Little Horton Lane.
The most infamous being a shooting incident of a lady police constable – Sharon Beshenivsky by a criminal gang while responding to a burglary in the city in November 2005.
Another grisly crime was committed by Stephen Griffiths in May 2010, killing three prostitutes that shook the entire nation. Griffiths, a student of masters in criminology aspired to be a serial killer. He most ruthlessly killed three women with a crossbow before dismembering bodies of two and moved their mutilated body organs in bin bags to dump them in the river. The third dead body was never found. He was pronounced guilty by the Crown Court that sentenced him to life imprisonment with a whole life order.
The West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner authority was previously held by Mark Burns-Williamson from 2012 to 2021. The position became defunct in May 2021 followed by its powers transferred to the Mayor of West Yorkshire.
Newly Elected Mayor of West Yorkshire
Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of West Yorkshire took charge of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and assumed the office and powers of the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner on 10 May this year.
Brabin was reached out to seek detailed explanation pertaining to the trespassing incident happened at the Bradford Interchange, however the Mayor chose not to respond till date.
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