MORE than 1,500 bus passengers went through high-profile security checks at Huddersfield Bus Station.
A special arch, designed to detect if people are carrying knives or other weapons, was set up for two hours in the bus station yesterday morning.
Specialist drugs dogs were also on hand to sniff out class A and class B drugs.
The security measures were installed at 8am and finished around 10.30am.
Sgt Mandy Mellor, from Huddersfield town centre policing team, said: “The arch was there for the safety of the public to assure them that people are not carrying anything they shouldn’t be. It went fantastically well and people were happy to see us.”
The operation was organised by Police Community Support Officer Natalie Haigh.
She revealed that in the two-and-a-half hours 1,500 people passed through the arch and no weapons were found.
She added: “Two people tried to dodge the arch. They were spotted doing quick about-turns when they had seen the arch and tried to go around the outside of the bus station to miss it.
“But we had plain clothes police officers among the crowds of people and they stopped and searched them.
“One of them had drugs paraphernalia but was not arrested.
“The drugs dogs showed an interest in six people, but nothing was found on them.’’
But she said one of the dogs showed a great interest in one of the buses so it was thoroughly searched by officers who found an empty packet that had contained cannabis.
PCSO Haigh added: “Bus inspectors also boarded 25 buses and checked 450 passengers to make sure they had a valid ticket.
“The whole event was to promote a safer bus station. Police calls there had fallen in recent times.
“This operation involved a lot of people going through the arch from schoolchildren to older students and people going to work.’’
A partnership called Safer Travel West Yorkshire has been set up involving the police, passenger transport executive Metro and bus operators like First, Arriva, Transdev and Centrebus.
It involves undercover police travelling on buses, ticket and bus pass inspections, CCTV on buses and even hidden cameras in bus shelters in known problem areas.
