Stansted Airport staff and passengers are encouraged to report incidents of abuse and violence as part of a police campaign.

Essex police officers from Stansted Community Policing Team (CPT) regularly carry out 'Project Servator' deployments at the airport, which aim to disrupt criminal activity while providing a reassuring presence for the public.

Officers were joined at the airport recently by colleagues from the Business Crime Team, who were raising awareness of crime and antisocial behaviour affecting airport businesses.

Dunmow Broadcast: Essex Police spoke with airport staff as part of the 'Open for Business, Closed for Crime' campaignEssex Police spoke with airport staff as part of the 'Open for Business, Closed for Crime' campaign (Image: Essex Police)

They spoke with hundreds of airport retail and customer service staff, as well as airline staff and passengers, about the 'Open for Business, Closed for Crime' campaign - which urges staff to report incidents.

Inspector Christian Denning said: "It is not acceptable for staff to be abused or assaulted while doing their job and trying to help people.

"We don’t tolerate such behaviour and neither should they. We want it to be reported to us so we can take appropriate action.

"This also means we can identify issues in a particular business or commercial sector and provide relevant crime prevention and security advice.

"Stansted Airport is a unique, dynamic and exciting community. Working with our partners there, we were able to promote best practice for staff safety and theft prevention in busy retail zones.

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"While our breath alcohol tester proved popular when we were speaking to passengers about anti-social behaviour and issues surrounding excessive alcohol intake."

The Stansted CPT officers also aim to build links across the airport community, encouraging staff and passengers to report anything that does not feel right.

PC Sean McHale, of Stansted CPT, said: "As part of Project Servator, specially-trained officers carry out unpredictable deployments that can happen anywhere at any time. They are looking for tell-tale signs in individuals who may be planning or preparing to commit criminal activity.

"Some patrols are highly visible, involving uniformed police officers, police dogs armed officers and vehicle checkpoints. Others are less visible, with plain-clothes officers, CCTV operators, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and drones."

The Project Servator deployments are deliberately unpredictable, and can be carried out anywhere around the airport at any time.