STREET robbers have been warned as police yesterday launched a summer crackdown on crime against tourists.
About 5,000 visitors are expected to visit Oxford this summer and police have begun an annual operation to help protect them against thieves.
Det Sgt Pauline Heilbron, leading Operation Buzzard, said officers would be patrolling crime hotspots and visiting known criminals to check up on them.
She said foreign visitors were vulnerable to crime in the city, adding: “You are in a strange area and they might not expect something like that to happen in Oxford.”
It is the fourth year police have led the operation.
Between April 2012 and March this year there were 151 robberies in the city, down 14 per cent on 175 in the year before.
The police also work with the two city universities and foreign language schools to spread advice about keeping safe.
Operation Buzzard will run until September.
It is being run alongside Operation Brush, which will see extra patrols to cut anti-social behaviour in parks.
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