Police are to target crime hotspots in the Keighley division to purge the streets of robbers and burglars.

The Nab Wood area of Shipley, Shipley Fields at Frizinghall and the Knowle Park district of Keighley have been pinpointed by detectives as places of high criminal activity.

And officers are to focus especially on a footpath known as Postman's Walk, between Braithwaite and Keighley town centre, where a number of people have been robbed in recent months.

Detective Chief Inspector Roger Gasson, of Keighley Police, said: "We will be working in conjunction with Bradford Council either to get the path closed or to make it more user friendly - to make it harder for people to commit crime."

Statistics had revealed that the Shipley Fields, Nab Wood and Knowle Park areas were hotspots where there had been robberies, and theft of audio and video equipment, credit cards, domestic appliances and jewellery.

He said a number of initiatives would be introduced to clamp down on criminals. "We will be targeting offenders, identifying them, disrupting their activities and making arrests," he said.

"We will be using plain clothes officers, setting up vehicle check points and using the automatic number plate recognition equipment to identify suspect vehicles."

Special constables would also be deployed along with other high visibility officers as well as members of the police community service team. Leaflets would be distributed to show people how to avoid being a victim, especially of sneak-in thieves.

DCI Gasson said overall crime had fallen from 5,125 between January and March 2002 to 4,672 over the same period this year. The number of robberies over the same period had fallen from 50 to 40.

White women aged over 51 were the most vulnerable with 20 being robbed over the three months.

Burglaries were also down from 779 between January and March 2002 to 644 this last quarter. Vehicle crime over the same period was down from 1,186 to 1,006.

There had been an increase of 14 per cent on the number of people caught shoplifting, as a result of closed circuit television and business watch schemes, he added.