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More than 500 knives have been recovered during Operation Blunt II it was announced today. At a joint press conference London's Mayor Boris Johnson and the Commissioner Sir Ian Blair announced the latest figures from the activity to target knife crime in the Capital. Sir Ian said: "We need, as the whole community of London, to reach out to young people and their parents to help them get rid of the knives on our streets and provide them with alternatives to crime and gang membership. I really admire those, for instance, who organised the demonstration in Islington yesterday. "Since Operation Blunt II started London-wide on 19 May, up until 29 June, the Met has carried out nearly 27,000 searches in this operation, arrested over 1,200 people for offences connected to knives, either those who are carrying or people already wanted for knife enabled crime, and we have seized over 500 knives. "In May we arrested and prosecuted two and a half times the number of people compared to last September when 30% of young people found in London with knives were cautioned by the Metropolitan Police. "Last week that was 5% - so 95% of those who have been arrested, where there's sufficient evidence, are now charged rather than cautioned. That was 105 people last week." Operation Blunt II was launched to tackle serious youth violence with knives being carried and used on London's streets. Between 19 May and 29 June 1,214 people were arrested for possession of weapons and other knife-related crimes. A total of 26,777 searches were conducted and 528 knives recovered during that period. Most of these knives were seized as a result of the greater use of officers' search powers, while others were recovered in regular searches of public places where police had been told weapons are being kept. Mayor Boris Johnson told the press conference: "Everybody is shocked by the level of violence we are seeing, particularly towards young people in London and we must all work as hard as we can together to reverse this dreadful trend. "Operation Blunt II is an important part of the fight back against the terrible scourge of knife crime." http://cms.met.police.uk/news/ |
