The Al Capone approach: Scotland Yard will lift criminals off street for any offence
THE head of Scotland Yard has pledged to use tactics that brought down Al Capone to combat the rising number of murders and knife crime in London.
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, is setting up a new task force to focus on the most violent gang members with the aim of taking them off the streets “for any crime”.
There have been 55 murders in the capital this year alone. Israel Ogunsola, 18, was stabbed to death in Hackney, east London, on Wednesday while a 53 year-old man died after being punched in a row at a betting shop in Clapton.
Last night, three teenage boys were taken to hospital after a stabbing in Mile End, east London. A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, the police said.
The Met’s new Violent Crime Task Force will have 120 officers targeting the people it identifies as “most dangerous” and known crime “hotspots”. Street dealing, muggers and anti-social behaviour will be on their list.
Ms Dick told the London Evening Standard: “We will be encouraging them not to just deal with those people for violent crime, or carrying a knife, but for associated crime, or indeed any crime. If we know they are a prolific criminal or a violent person, and can lock them up, then that’s all to the good.”
The tactics are similar to those used against Al Capone by Chicago police in the Twenties. After evading attempts to be pinned down for murder, the gangster was arrested in 1929 for carrying a concealed weapon and eventually brought down for tax evasion.
Ms Dick said: “We will put even more effort into bearing down on violent crime. You will see us being even more proactive out on the streets.”
The police will rely on “a focused effort, including intelligence-led stop-and-search and the use of specialists in covert tactics.”
The commissioner referred to doctors reporting “more young people with severe injuries. We are seeing more concerted attacks by groups with real determination to kill and that is very worrying”.
Her comments followed the news that London hospitals are increasingly treating children in “school uniforms” with gun and stab wounds, one of the capital’s leading trauma surgeons said.
Martin Griffiths, the leading surgeon for Barts Health NHS Trust, warned that London’s spiralling murder rate has resulted in a “sea change” in medical practice: “Five to six years ago, the news of a five-year-old boy being stabbed was a horror story, now it’s normal. We used to look after people in their 20s, now it’s teenagers and children.”