Rhys Jones: Police chief 'worried' about gun numbers

Sep 5 2007 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYSIDE Police are recovering “a worrying number of guns”, Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe revealed last night, just a fortnight after Rhys Jones was shot dead.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Post, Mr Hogan-Howe also said parents who failed to inform on their children for possessing a gun should be ejected from estates.

Speaking following a gun crime summit at Downing Street with Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last month, he said nearly 60 guns had been taken off Merseyside’s streets in the last 18 months.

The issue of gun crime has taken on a new urgency following the murder of 11-year-old Rhys in Croxteth Park two weeks ago.

Last night Mr Brown said he wanted greater use of police stop and search powers in specific areas to intercept guns.

Mr Hogan-Howe said Liverpool is the UK’s fourth worst area for gun crime following London, Birmingham, and Manchester which together account for 50% of gun crime.

The Prime Minister acknow-ledged the government would have to tackle the supply of guns in these “hot spots”.

“It was a productive meeting” said Mr Hogan-Howe. “It was good to see the Prime Minister and Home Secretary getting personally involved.”

He said it has been accepted at a political level that there was a “serious problem” with gun crime but there was something that could be done about it.

Mr Hogan-Howe said: “The first thing is recognising statis-tics seem to show gun crime has gone down but youngsters getting involved with guns is going up.

“The big message is ‘get the guns off the street’, because once they get into anyone’s hands they become extremely dangerous.

“We need to work with fami-lies, schools, and use new tech-nologies. I am determined we will take the lead on that. In a coun-try in which gun supply is restricted, we have a great oppor-tunity to stop this and make sure it does not infest our estates.”

The Chief Constable said: “People need to tell us where the guns are, it’s very straight-forward really.”

People could come forward by calling 999, Crimestoppers, or through third parties. “All they have to do is tell us where the guns are with clarity,” he said.

Police needed specific inform-ation about the locations of guns, which gangs often stash in woods and recreational areas.

“The priority is getting guns off the streets, to get the guns out of the hands of kids, out of the recreational zones,” he said.

He added: “There is evidence some parents are encouraging youngsters into criminality. If a parent is found to have been aware their young person has got a gun and not let anybody know about it, action should be taken to remove them from the estate.”

He said this action was needed because the presence of certain families had the power to instil fear in other residents.

Denying worries that parts of Norris Green had become no-go zones even for police, he said: “I don’t accept that, we enforce the law throughout Merseyside.”

“We have put 20 extra officers into Norris Green and Croxteth since the murder of Liam Smith (a year ago),” he said.

“In the past 18 months we have been executing three firearm warrants a week,” he added.

As a result nearly 60 guns had been recovered and nearly 50 people had been charged.

Mr Hogan-Howe said it was hard to say exactly how many guns were “out there”, but he said the force was “recovering a worrying number of guns” which was an indicator of the scale of the problem.

OPINION: PAGE 12