Sir Bernard reverts to `Robocop` image in push to reduce Londons gun crime
Britains most senior officer is turning back the hands of time to help his officers fight the modern-day scourge of Britain`s capital.
May 27, 2016
By Nick Hudson
Britains most senior officer is turning back the hands of time to help his officers fight the modern-day scourge of Britain`s capital.
An increase in firearms supply coupled with a spike in shooting incidents across London in the last three months has prompted the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe to react in characteristic fashion.
For the man who elicited a `Robocop` compliment after chasing, and apprehending, a criminal following his job interview with former London mayor Boris Johnson is forming an elite task force to make the city`s crime hotspots safe.
Sir Bernard appears to be looking to successes of a decade ago when he set up a specialist Matrix team to tackle gun crime on Merseyside to address gang-related troubles today in London boroughs with the highest levels of firearms discharges.
The 2016 version of Matrix a new initiative called Operation Viper will launch “visible” armed patrols into the priority boroughs of Hackney, Lambeth, Southwark, Brent, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
Armed officers will support colleagues stopping people suspected of possessing firearms, Sir Bernard said.
Reacting to more illegal guns on the streets and the rise in shootings, he added: The fact that were seeing it across the country in the big cities probably indicates that were talking about more supply.”
And he warned: “Our officers will use all their powers to take on the gunmen and those that supply them.”
Nationally, there has been an increase of around 19 per cent in firearms discharges since 2013/14, with London also experiencing the same level of increase.
Led by the Trident and Gang Crime Command, Viper will consist of a team of 50 officers and include detectives from the Serious and Organised Crime Command (SCO7), uniformed officers from borough, and the Task Force, including the Territorial Support Group and the Dogs Unit.
The Force Firearms Unit (SCO19) will dedicate a team from the Armed Response Unit to support the work. The Viper officers will also be able to rapidly respond to issues emerging in other boroughs.
Tactics employed through Viper are designed to make it harder for criminals to engage in gun crime.
Police activity will include high-visibility armed patrols, pro-active Automatic Number Plate Recognition operations, weapon sweeps, and intelligence-led stop and search. Officers will be targeting known firearms offenders, making arrests and executing search warrants.
Viper teams will work alongside borough colleagues to assist in educating young people about the dangers of carrying firearms.
The operation will see armed officers accompanying others on traffic stops as part of a suite of suppression measures.
Sir Bernard said more stop and search may also be used, under Section 60 powers, allowing stops without an officer needing reasonable suspicion.
He said any such tactics would only be used if justified by intelligence.
Informants could also be paid more than £2,000 for information that leads to the recovery of guns and conviction of criminals in a bid to get high-powered weapons off the streets.
In March, the MPS recorded 30 shootings involving lethal barrelled weapons, and there were 25 in April and a similar number so far this month.
The force said that weapons had been fired in London 122 times so far this year, with two people killed and 62 injured.
In 2015, there were 226 discharges of firearms, with ten people killed and 93 injured.