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Sheffield violent crime blitz - PICTURES

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Published Date: 23 November 2009
POLICE in Sheffield swooped on clubs and anti-social kids in a massive operation to rid the city of violent crime.
More than 300 officers took to Sheffield's crime hotspots on Saturday night, armed with special powers to search young people for concealed knives and weapons.

Operation Portcullis - planned months in advance - resulted in 24 arrests, including a man wanted for 10 robberies.

Another arrest recovered a quantity of class A drugs and £6,000 in cash, while three men were arrested for conspiracy to rob a local businessman.

Other arrests were made for possession of class A drugs and cannabis, with two people arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.

The operation was centred around three Sheffield nightspots - Club Zion and Club Fortuna, in Attercliffe, and Club Vibe, on Charter Square, Sheffield.

Police did not enter any of the clubs but took people from the queues outside to West Bar police station.

They used special search powers, known as a section 60 order, allowing officers to take young people aged 13 to 24 to the station to be put through high-tech safety arches - similar to those at airports - to detect hidden weapons.

Officers took 82 young people from the streets and clubs to the search facility, but only one weapon was discovered, a small lock knife that was found in a car brought into the search centre.

The search facility was accompanied by automatic number plate recognition teams, firearms officers, fingerprint recognition technology and stolen mobile phone checks.

The UK Border Agency was also drafted in to check for illegal immigrants as the young people passed through the safety arches. Social workers and police officers also toured three of Sheffield's most crime-ridden neighbourhoods, Broomhall, Burngreave and Upperthorpe, in efforts to curb the rise of gang culture among youngsters.

Kids at risk of causing violence, drinking or being sexually exploited were taken to a "place of safety" and collected by their parents.

The operation was carried out as part of the Government's Tackling Knives Action Programme, aimed at reducing the number of young people aged between 13 and 24 killed or seriously injured from knife crime and serious youth violence. Sheffield has been blighted in recent years by a spate of murders sparked by feuds between 'postcode gangs'.

In August four men were sentenced for the murder of 17-year-old Tarek Chaiboub, assassinated in Spital Street, Burngreave, in July last year as a result of a feud.

Another S3 gang member, Jonathan Matondo, was shot dead aged 16 in October 2007.

Visit thestar.co.uk/pictures for more photos from the operation.
Police rap club - page 13.


THE police operation has been hailed as 'incredibly successful' by the senior officer in charge.

Chief Superintendent Paul Broadbent, strategic commander for Operation Portcullis, said: "It was a busy night, and it was incredibly successful.

"All the operation tried to do was to create a safe environment where people can go out and have a good time without being the victim of violent crime or being assaulted.

"In no way, shape, or form was this anything akin to a PR exercise."
Chf Supt Broadbent said the operation was well-received in the nightclubs targeted - Attercliffe's Club Vibe and Club Fortuna, and Club Zion in Sheffield city centre.

"What we've tried to do with club owners, is create an atmosphere where we can talk in a mature way about unwanted people who are frequenting their premises. We had no trouble whatsoever."

Chf Supt Broadbent said young people were searched based on police intelligence and "their demeanour at the time".

"Everything we did was completely and wholly proportionate and justified," he added. Police officers and social workers were also sent to Broomhall, Burngreave, and Upperthorpe, where they took young people on the streets aged 13 to 24 to a "place of safety" to be collected by their parents.

Chf Supt Broadbent said: "If there are young people on the streets who we believe need to be taken into a place of safety we'll do that. Maybe some of the parents then need to take more responsibility for the conduct of their children or some of them actually need some assistance themselves to be better parents."

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  • Last Updated: 23 November 2009 11:24 AM
  • Source: Sheffield Star
  • Location: Sheffield
 
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Handsworth,

23/11/2009 11:40:24
Have just read the above item and the item about the shooting in Barnsley. It gets more like the old west every day.
Nothing will change unless and until we have a Government and a Judicial System which makes criminals realise that it is not some form of joke to go aroung beating up and shooting people.
I read only last week that some prisons are so overcrowded that the prisoners go home at night. What signal does that send out to criminals ????
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all seeing eye,

23/11/2009 11:57:45
It appears the knife was a small one on a blokes key ring. The kind many Sheffielders used to carry. If the operation was a deterrent then thats great, however, if to actually catch the knife carriers, not just put them off coming into town centre on one night, then it is not enough. Sod the human rights brigade and search and search again those groups identified from intelligence as knife carriers.javascript:__doPostBack('wctlAddComment1$ctl00$btnPost','')
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roos,

Sheff 23/11/2009 13:06:12
What a joke. What gives them the right to pick and choose people out of club's queues to take elsewhere for a search? Do they really think people who are about to go through metal detectors at Vibe night club are going to have knives on them? Not that I feel sorry for the type of people that go there.

It's understandable that they found people with a variety of drugs about to enter clubs but I think the statement that " it was a huge success " is a complete joke.

Complete waste of tax payers money.
4

SleepyHead,

SHEFFIELD 23/11/2009 13:17:00
I'd love to see them try this on the 24+ age group, except that can't can they because the gummint knew they wouldn't get away with harrassing the general population and decided to legislate against kids and young adults instead.
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Roysie,

23/11/2009 15:20:18
It's a wonder their are any police dealing with violent crime when I'm being harassed by them for parking outside my dipstick neighbours dropped kerb. Even though I am not obstructing it due to no vehicle being there, the dipsticks report me the the police who then can't react quick enough so that they can come and read me the riot act!!!!
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saxon boy,

23/11/2009 15:45:50
This gimmick will have next to no effect on ongoing drug dealing, robbery and shootings that are a daily occurance on Sheffields estates. Its a hollow excersize in public appeasment and dosen't really inconvinience the hardened criminals at all. That said, its a start, but will it continue? Don't hold your breath! To call this operation a success is a bit of an overstatement. When you pick through the details very little was achieved. Are our streets safer places to be after this? The answer is a resounding and dissapointing NO!!!
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nickname of less than 50 characters,

sheffield 23/11/2009 17:31:02
How many police does it take to find a penknife? The answer seems to be 300.

Don't know about the other places but the centre of town needs consistent day in day out policing, not in your face one off PR stunts.

Still, the lads have got some overtime in for Xmas.
8

Don147v,

23/11/2009 17:32:03
Dear Roysie, re your comments,people pay for dropped kerbs installing to access their property whether they are in or out, so expect complaints if you insist on parking in that area!
9

freedom,

Sheffield 23/11/2009 18:36:00
So Sheffield's share of the 1 million youths out of work are to be harassed by 300 police on a special section 60. To find essentially a pen knife for opening letters, parcels etc.

Would it not be better to employ 600 or even 900 of the youth to do industrial work instead, our industries are all but gone. No wonder this country is a joke.
10

RX,

Sheffield 23/11/2009 18:39:50
Except they didn't just find a penknife did they? Did you read the article?

"Operation Portcullis - planned months in advance - resulted in 24 arrests, including a man wanted for 10 robberies.

Another arrest recovered a quantity of class A drugs and £6,000 in cash, while three men were arrested for conspiracy to rob a local businessman.

Other arrests were made for possession of class A drugs and cannabis, with two people arrested on suspicion of drink-driving."

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

"What gives them the right to pick and choose people out of club's queues to take elsewhere for a search?"

The power is under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
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