High ranking Merseyside Police officers said the force is striving to make communities "toxic" to Merseyside's estimated 110 organised crime groups as it responded to increased scrutiny following the death of Olivia Pratt-Korbel.
Olivia, nine, was shot dead when a gunman, hunting 35-year-old convicted criminal Joseph Nee, followed his target through the front door of the schoolgirl's home in Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot, and opened fire at around 10pm on Monday, August 22. One shot hit her mum, Cheryl Korbel, in the arm and fatally wounded Olivia.
That atrocity came after the firearms murders of Ashley Dale, 28, in Old Swan on August 21 and Sam Rimmer, 22, in Dingle on August 16. Olivia's murder in particular put Merseyside squarely in the spotlight of the national news agenda for the worst reasons imaginable, and questions have been been asked about whether the force is doing enough to tackle violent organised criminals.
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But the force has insisted it is "relentless and steadfast" in its approach to organised crime.
Today, at a media briefing, high ranking officers dealing with organised crime told the media how Merseyside has an estimated 100 - 110 organised crime groups in its midst, ranging from chaotic, dangerous low level street gangs to highly organised, highly secretive major international drug traffickers.
Detective Chief Superintendent Lee Turner, head of intelligence at Merseyside Police, told the ECHO: "We use a process called Organised Crime Group Mapping (OCGM), where we will see a group of individuals operating with some sort of organised criminal methodology. We will then score that group, and it goes through a matrix to determine a level of threat harm and risk.
"So at the moment we have got about 110, previously we've had around 130 and we've archived some of those. Of those 110, they're not all committing criminality on Merseyside. They are groups, some are dormant, others will be more prevalent and causing more significant threat, harm and risk than some lower down the chain so to speak.
"You may see some organised crime groups that are actively pursuing the use of firearms and importation of drugs, modern day slavery or county lines or any of those. They will score much higher up the Management of Risk in Law Enforcement (Morile) scoring mechanism than some right down the lower end, who might be dealing cannabis one day a week out of a specific location in Merseyside. So we score them accordingly and we respond with an array of tactics to determine what we need to do to dismantle that group."
DCS Turner was asked about how the force investigates shootings where the weapon has not been recovered. He described how the force works with the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) and its own in house ballistics team to check if bullets have been fired from weapons linked to other shootings, known as "linked series" weapons.
He explained when a bullet is struck by the firing pin of a gun the impact leaves a unique marking, like a fingerprint, which can be used to compare and contrast with other shootings.
DCS Turner said: "I think we have got nine linked series firearms at the moment. They will all be getting investigated, some have been used several times. The one that has been used the most, over a long period time, has been used eight times. That was used seven times in a period over a decade ago, then we didn't see it for a while, and then it has been used again on one occasion.
"So we would have done the Matrix and risk around that firearm and the team would look at specific links, what was the intelligence around it last time, was there DNA? Was it sufficient when it was looked at last time, around say spent cartridges? We would then go back to the forensic science service about looking at what they can offer us in terms of new and enhanced capabilities around DNA."
Assistant Chief Constable Chris Green told the media that Merseyside had been rated 'outstanding' by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in its approach to serious and organised crime for each year since 2014.
ACC Green said Merseyside was the first force outside of London's Metropolitan Police to set up a dedicated guns and gangs department, the Matrix unit, back in 2005 and said it's approach to organised crime has "continued to evolve" since then.
He told the media: "We are, and will be, relentless in our pursuit. Whether that's relentless in the work we do around prevention, or whether it's relentless in protecting people, or whether it's relentless in pursuing.
"You will have seen the activity over the last few weeks when we have had a surge of pursue activity, because quite rightly it is important to demonstrate to our communities that we are there for them and we are taking action against those who they can see and they know in their communities are that toxic element, with the violence, with the intimidation, and the threat and risk they pose."
ACC Green said the response to calls for intelligence from the community in the wake of Olivia's murder has been "phenomenal".
He said: "We absolutely recognise here in Merseyside is that this is all about our communities, our strategy here in Merseyside is community first and this is about putting our communities at the heart of everything that we do.
"Providing and helping and contributing to make sure that we have got community cohesion, that our communities are resilient, and actually make sure that they don't enable, allow, they don't stand for the organised crime that sits in and around our communities."
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