A senior police officer branded organised crime a "blight on communities" and said "Wirral is not immune" from horrifying gun violence.
Assistant Chief Constable Jon Roy told the ECHO Merseyside Police would "relentlessly pursue" organised crime groups (OCGs) who use guns to enforce their criminality. The force yesterday launched EVOLVE Wirral - a cross partner approach to disrupt and deter OCG activity and help stop the Woodchurch, Noctorum and Beechwood estates from being exploited by criminals.
EVOLVE Wirral is one of three EVOLVE projects launched by Merseyside Police in response to the extreme violence that has blighted Merseyside in recent months. The initiative on Wirral comes in response to the gun deaths of Jackie Rutter and Elle Edwards.
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Those two deaths followed a devastating seven day period in August where nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Sam Rimmer and Ashley Dale were all killed by a gun. The ECHO reported last month that the last three times the Czech-manufactured gun, described as "battlefield weaponry," had resulted in deaths the last three times it had been discharged. This included Elle, who was fatally injured by stray bullets fired from a Skorpion machine pistol on Christmas Eve.
When asked by the ECHO what Merseyside Police was doing to combat this dangerous weaponry, ACC Roy said: "Any type of automatic weapon is more dangerous, but any weapon will cause serious injuries and is intended to kill people. There’s not just a focus on one particular type of weapon, except the particular threat that poses, but to crack down on weapons per say.
"We want to seek out firearms wherever they may be." He added: "We've had some success ... but that doesn't diminish our relentless pursuit of all firearms."
The senior officer told the ECHO the force "rely more and more on community intelligence" - and last year's spate of fatal gun shootings marked "a tipping and turning point" as communities provided intelligence.
The police carried out a series of public, coordinated raids on houses linked to suspected OCG activity. Three people were arrested and a quantity of cash and drugs were seized.
A significant part of the EVOLVE project is to help reclaim and rebuild areas at risk of significant harm from criminal gangs - and then regenerate the areas with community and partner-led initiatives.
ACC Roy said: "Our commitment to tackle organised crime and clear it out of the communities. This is a commitment to communities who have for too long been blighted by organised crime, knife crime, gun crime, by serious violence, to stay with them and work with them in a different way and then build it back."
Anyone with any information about crime is asked to call Merseyside Police on 101, or Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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