Operation Trident cuts threat provokes backlash

Agnes Sina-Inakoju, 16, died after being shot in the neck at a takeaway in Hoxton

This article titled “Operation Trident cuts threat provokes backlash” was written by Rajeev Syal, for The Guardian on Monday 22nd November 2010 19.45 UTC

Opposition politicians and victims of crime have blamed excessively harsh government cuts for the threat to disband the police unit dedicated to investigating violent crime in London’s black community.

The Guardian disclosed that Operation Trident may be merged with other Metropolitan police squads following the comprehensive spending review. A high-ranking officer raised the possibility when Trident’s independent advisory group met earlier this month.

Vernon Coaker, the shadow policing minister, said senior officers had been put in an impossible position by overly harsh cuts proposed by George Osborne. “As I know from my own time as policing minister, Operation Trident does a vital job tackling gun crime in the capital. I’d be very concerned if it was disbanded or its important work was undermined,” he said.

“This is precisely the sort of specialist work which will suffer with cuts on this scale. By cutting so deeply and so quickly, the government is taking big risks with the safety of our communities.”

David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham was raised concerned about the apparent downgrading of Operation Trident. He said: “We cannot crack gun and knife crime without quality intelligence.

“I would tread very carefully about turning the clock back and seeing vital parts of Trident mainstreamed into Scotland Yard.”

The relatives of people killed or injured in gun violence also warned today that any attempt to disband or merge Trident would lead to more unsolved murders.

Lucy Cope, from Mothers Against Guns, said: “David Cameron and Nick Clegg should hang their heads in shame when their cuts mean that there are discussions about a possible merger of Trident to save money.

“Trident mainly deals with black on black crime and if it’s changed, messed about with or spread out around the Met, it will mean more unsolved killings.”

Safura Sina-Inakoju, whose daughter Agnes, 16, was shot in April as she chatted with friends at a Hackney takeaway, told the Evening Standard: “Trident has to keep going. They did such a good job for me and my family. If the government realised the pain gun crime causes people like me, they would not even think about this.”

Operation Trident was set up in 1998 amid a wave of a gang-related violence in London linked to crack cocaine and an aggresive gun culture.

The unit, the first of its kind in Britain, helps officers in local stations to investigate shootings and collates intelligence from across the capital on suspected gunmen, firearms suppliers and gun converters. It now has 350 investigative officers and 98 support staff. Since April this year, it has investigated 224 shootings, including 12 murders.

Over the past 12 years, the unit has conducted dozens of investigations that have led to convictions, including that of Owen Clark, aka Father Fowl, in 2004. The drug kingpin’s operation, involving crack cocaine and gun crime, stretched from north-west London to the Caribbean.

It has now moved away from “black on black” killings to include all non-fatal shootings and tactics used by the unit have been reportedly transferred to other cities including Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Liverpool.

Claudia Webbe, head of the Trident independent advisory group, declined to comment on the meeting held two weeks ago, but said she and other group members were “clearly worried” by what could happen to Trident following government cuts.

She said: “Trident has successfully demonstrated that it is a powerful partnership between the police and the community in tackling the disproportionate effects of gun crime on black communities … despite previous policing failures and charges of ‘institutional racism’.”

According to today’s Evening Standard, the Met is looking to merge Operation Trident with the force’s main murder investigations teams to save money.

Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, which supervises the force, told this newspaper that the idea of merging officers without undertaking a thorough strategic review would be a grave mistake. “This is a knee-jerk reaction by the Met. There needs to be a proper review of Met resources and how we allocate them. The Met isn’t being strategic on this,” she said.

Scotland Yard denies that there are plans to disband Trident. However, its statement did not not address the Guardian’s claim that a senior named officer told Trident’s independent advisory group that it could be merged with other squads.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, who had pledged to spearhead the fight against youth violence, declined to comment on the matter. “We are not adding to the Met’s statement,” said a spokeswoman.

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