BRITAIN’S police forces will be urged today to adopt a crime-fighting initiative pioneered in Merseyside, after it impressed Home Office ministers.

The action plan will call for an extension of Operation Staysafe, in which police take unaccompanied children off the streets at night and hold them until their parents can collect them.

Merseyside Police introduced the scheme last year in Croxteth, Norris Green and Clubmoor, taking advantage of child protection legislation as an extra weapon in the fight against street crime.

Within weeks, nearly 400 youths, aged 10 to 23, had been stopped and spoken to, 52 units of alcohol seized and 24 youths taken home.

The initiative was led by Chief Inspector Bill McWilliam, who spent 18 months on secondment with Government Office North West to learn about gun and gang crime in the North West, West Midlands and London.

He also went to Los Angeles with senior police officers and representatives from the Home Office to examine different approaches to gang culture.

Yesterday, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith identified an “expansion of Operation Staysafe in targeted areas” as a measure to be outlined in her proposals today.

A spokeswoman said: “It is a Merseyside project using existing child protection legislation to remove children and young people from the street late at night for their and the community's safety.”