Metropolitan Police Service Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has announced a new temporary taskforce to co-ordinate the force’s response to violent crime involving young people in South London.
The announcement follows a number of recent fatal shootings.
According to a statement released by the Met today the taskforce will “build on and enhance the Met’s current activities in tackling violence, particularly gun violence, through Operation Trident, the Violent Crime Directorate, our armed response capability and borough-based officers. It is being led by Commander Paul Minton from the Territorial Policing command.”
Sir Ian said the new taskforce would “coordinate resources to help bring violent offenders to justice, disrupt any escalation in violent activity and reassure the public” but stressed it would not involved routine foot patrol by armed police.
The Commissioner said there would instead be “an increase in intelligence-led armed interventions and high visibility policing in certain locations.”
It’s also been announced that the Commissioner has suggested to the Home Secretary that the minimum age for a mandatory five-year prison sentence for possession of firearms should be reduced to seventeen.
