Mayor of London Boris Johnson joined Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith and Met Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair at South London’s Elephant and Castle shopping centre to see at first hand the Metropolitan Police’s new knife crime operation, Operation Blunt 2.
The operation has been launched in the wake of increasing numbers of young people have been killed in attacks involving knives.
Speaking this morning the Mayor said he wanted to see “more intelligence led police initiatives focused on key estates, more handheld scanners and knife arches to detect guns and knives and a huge drive to get kids off the streets and into activities which raise their aspirations and help turn their lives around.”
Mayor Johnson also met with local residents and Southwark police officers including Borough Commander Chief Supt Malcolm Tillyer.
In a statement issued yesterday the Home Secretary said: “by extending the presumption to prosecute people carrying knives, the Met is already taking firm action in London, where knife-enabled crime has dropped by 16% in the last year. But every incident is one too many.”
Ms Smith says she and Mayor Johnson “agree that we must be unfailing in our commitment to our communities and our young people to tackle these difficult issues,’ she said”.
