Societal change urged to stop killings
Call for radical action from communities as man is held over murder of teenage London girl
Asenior Scotland Yard officer has said radical “societal change” is needed to stem a rising tide of homicides after detectives arrested a man on suspicion of the murder of a teenage girl that brought national attention to London’s violent crime crisis.
DCS Michael Gallagher, the head of the Metropolitan police’s organised crime command and former lead on knife crime, said action was needed from government, parents and communities as Britain’s largest force could not arrest its way out of the problem.
Yesterday, however, the Mayor of London again said the Met would increase the use of stopand-search powers, placing him on a collision course with Labour colleagues and activists who say the tactic poisons relations between police and London’s black and minority communities.
Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What you will see over the course of the next few weeks and months is what we have seen over the last few weeks and months, which is stop-and-search based on suspicion of carrying
A sharp increase in killings in London, with more than 50 so far this year, has led to emergency talks between police and community groups.
an offensive weapon going up, more arrests as a consequence of this intelligence-led stop-and-search going up, and hopefully our city becoming safer.”
The Met commissioner, Cressida Dick, used a BBC interview to announce that the force would deploy 300 extra officers a day to the areas of London most affected by violence. A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said the force would not reveal which areas these were.
A sharp increase in killings in London, with more than 50 so far this year, has led to emergency talks between police and community groups.
On Friday, as Scotland Yard convened an emergency meeting with community groups to discuss the killings, police hunting those behind the shooting of 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne-Blake arrested a suspect.