Undercover police to protect UK tourists
Greek police have launched a campaign against the increasing incidence of rape and other violent crimes against British vacationers in popular tourist destinations. Plainclothes police officers have been sent to the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Crete. «They are going to be invisible, out of uniform, but they’ll have their badges and if there’s any trouble they’ll intervene,» Alexis Doukas of the Greek National Tourism Organization told the Guardian. The newspaper reported that last week local police officers were briefed by their British counterparts on the appropriate way to treat victims. Rapes reported by Britons holidaying in Greece rose from 17 in 1998 to 34 last year, and violent crime in general from 23 to 57, British consulate staff told the Guardian. Diplomats say many perpetrators are fellow Britons.