Met chief defies May over knife searches
SCOTLAND Yard has started a campaign against knife crime, including stop and search activity, days after the force was involved in a clash with the Home Secretary over the tactic.
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, launched the initiative involving even more widespread deployment of stop and search powers which, the force claims, will help officers combat illegal use of knives.
In a thinly veiled attack on Sir Bernard last week, Theresa May said that claims knife crime is rising as a result of curbs on stop and search were “simply not true” and accused senior officers who expand the powers of “a knee-jerk reaction on the back of a false link”.
It was unusual as ministers do not normally criticise police chiefs over techniques they use to combat crime.
Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Southworth, who runs the Met’s Trident Gang Crime Command, said: “We have a number of operations planned throughout the capital, including activity to target known offenders, focused and intelligence-led stop and search and weapon sweeps in areas where intelligence suggests offenders are hiding knives in public areas.”
A similar campaign in the summer by Britain’s biggest force led to 270 arrests and more than 900 knives being recovered.
In April last year Mrs May said use of stop and search had become an “unacceptable affront to justice” after watchdogs found 27 per cent of searches did not contain reasonable grounds for suspicion.