Moped crime in London has more than halved since Scotland Yard started ramming in to suspects, the force revealed.
Police began using their cars to stop suspected criminals in November 2018, after the number of thieves using scooters to target pedestrians rose dramatically.
Since then the spate of offenders using mopeds in the capital has dropped from 20,973, between June 2017 and July 2018, to just 9723 in the year until June 2019 – a 53.7% reduction in offences.
During the surge in moped enabled crimes in 2017 yobs on scooters were targeting pedestrians and snatching phones, wallets and bags.
In 2018 Commander Amanda Pearson, of the Met’s front-line policing unit, said the approach was needed to stop dangerous chases.
“A lot of them get up and run away, looking aghast at how dare we [ram them],” Ms Pearson said in a briefing at Scotland Yard in November 2018.
A year later there are fewer thefts of mopeds, scooters and motorcycles. Between July 2017 and June 2018 there were 11,395 bike thefts, which has since fallen by 22.4%, to 8847 between July 2018 and June 2019.
Chief Inspector Jim Corbett, from Operation Venice, which tackles moped and motorcycle crime, said: “The reduction in mopeds and motorcycles being used in crime is great to see, but we recognise we are not out of the woods.
“Although we have seen reductions, we need to continue to work together with our partners and the public to reduce crime further and we are asking for the public to follow our Lock, Chain, Cover advice.”
Operation Venice uses a range of tactics including the use of tyre deflators, DNA forensic tagging spray and tactical contact to stop moped and motorcycle enabled crime.