A major Police operation in Knowsley today (11 Dec) has seen more than 250 police officers descend on Huyton and Stockbridge Village to identify and arrest those responsible for criminality in the local area.
Operation Vanguard, as it is known, is part of the Knowsley Community Safety Partnership’s commitment to keeping communities safe by taking strong action against those responsible for crime. The operation today supports the ongoing work of Merseyside Police and other partners.
Over the last six months officers in Knowsley have been working to tackle issues including serious violence, robberies of electric bikes and violence fuelled by an element of serious and organised crime.
This has included two recent firearms discharges in the Huyton area, an attempt murder of a child in Kirkby, which resulted in a 15-year-old boy being convicted, and two arrests after an 18-year-old in Huyton lost his hand after being attacked at a house party in September this year.
As a result, the local policing area has stood up Operation ZINC (response to ASB related activity) and Operation Athena, this is an operational response to a critical incident. Both operations mean officers are dedicated to provide targeted activities to tackle those involved in crime in those area.
Some of the results include:
- The charge and remand of Adrian Moore for an aggravated burglary (with a firearm)
- The recovery of a firearm recovered during an open land search in Kirkby
- The recovery of a firearm recovery following an injury discharge on Radway Road in Huyton
- The charge of David Bigley following a County Lines operation
- A youth charged and remanded for three counts of possession of a bladed article – one of those relating to a street robbery
- Increased policing resources over Op Banger which saw an overall drop of 15% in crimes and ASB compared with the year before.
Chief Constable Rob Carden said: “While today is all about making a clear statement of intent in our fight to tackle criminality, I want to stress that the activity we are undertaking today goes on right across Merseyside 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
“We are stop searching suspects every day, conducting warrants at their homes, searching their properties and stopping their cars
“Criminals have no right to conduct their offending here in Merseyside and we will go on disrupting them every day so that they are left in no doubt that they are not welcome here.
“The people of Merseyside have been a huge support in these efforts, and I ask that you keep telling us where criminals are operating, where they are storing and carrying drugs and weapons, and we will using all the powers and tools at our disposal to take robust action.”
If you have any information which could help us to prevent criminality in your area, let us know so that we can take action and ensure our communities can enjoy their local areas safely.
If you have any information please call 101 or contact us on social media @MerPolCC. You can also report information via our website: https://www.merseyside.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/
Alternatively, contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, or via their website here: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/forms/give-information-anonymously In an emergency always call 999.