A police operation dedicated to eradicating weapons and violent crime has been established in the capital.
Barnet police officers will be supporting a Met task force created in reaction to the spike in violence on the streets.
The Violent Crime Task force of 120 full time, specially selected officers from around London will focus on violent crime, armed crime and serious crime.
The spike in violent crime is largely gang related in other London Boroughs and officers from neighbouring unaffected areas will be lending aid to the worse affected boroughs.
The task force be made up of local police officers, the Met police’s Trident, Area Crime Command, as well as community partners.
The new task force will use a full range of tactics to identify, target and arrest suspects such as covert tactics targeting both street level and serious crime.
The Task force is working as part of Operation Sceptre, a campaign to get weapons off the streets.
Since being created in 2015 it has conducted stop and searches and weapons sweeps across London in addition to educational packages to young people in schools across London.
Since 2015, Sceptre has conducted 5791 Weapon Sweeps and 700 Test Purchase operations in shops that sell knives.
A total of 4565 stop and searches were conducted in six weeks in October 2016 resulting in 793 arrests.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here