The Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the Mayor of London are boosting the fight against violent crime in the capital by adding another 122 officers to the City Hall funded Violent Crime Taskforce for the next three months.
The officers will temporarily move from roads and transport policing and will be ready to start this Monday, boosting the size of the taskforce - a targeted team making arrests and taking weapons off the streets in the areas of London with the highest concentrations of knife and other forms of violent crime.
The taskforce was launched in April and has so far made 895 arrests, carried out more than 1,400 weapons sweeps, removed 212 knives and nearly 200 offensive weapons from our streets. Bolstering the Taskforce from its current 150 officers to 272 will allow the Met to be even more proactive on the streets of the capital, bearing down on violent crime and serious criminality.
The Mayor and his team are doing everything possible to tackle violent crime. As well as setting up the taskforce and boosting police power, City Hall is investing in youth and preventative services to provide young people with a path away from violence.