South Yorkshire Police's armed crime team visiting homes of people suspected of being involved with firearms

Around 20 individuals across South Yorkshire who are suspected of being involved in gun crime are currently subject to a 'cease and desist process,' The Star has learned.

Modelled on an initative used in Merseyside in the wake of a number of horrific, and fatal, shootings, the initiative is currently being used by South Yorkshire Police in a bid to disrupt 'key individuals that are identified as being involved in gun crime'.

The targeted individuals delievered notices by officers, which 'formally advise them that they have been identified them through intelligence provided as an individual involved in gun crime,' a South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said.

Detective Superintendent Jamie Henderson, head of the force's Armed Crime Team, told The Star there are currently around 20 people across South Yorkshire who are subject to the process, after being identified using 'incident data and crime data intelligence'.

He explained: "Ultimately, it's about being overt in telling these individuals that we believe them to be involved in firearms criminality and that we will be relentless in tackling them.

"So we identify them, we serve a notice on them and tell them what our reasoning is for identifying them as a gun crime nominal. And we do this in person, we do this through with our armed crime team.

"Our firearms assets go out, serve the notice on them, explain to them what it is that we believe in to be involved in. 

“And in the strongest possible terms, we're telling this person to change their lifestyle and move away from crime and move away from firearms; and signposting them towards partner agencies to help them to do that and directing them towards training, education or employment.

“But clearly some of these individuals are entrenched in criminality and don't want to engage with us in the police and that's where we use the full partnership approach. So whether it be using care proceedings to protect children or young people that might be residents in those addresses. Whether that be using antisocial behaviour powers to prevent them from frequenting certain areas, or associating from with other key individuals, or even looking at housing legislation, looking at evictions.

“It is using all the tools to really disrupt. At this minute in time we're managing just over 20 individuals across the county on this process.”

Officers also inform individuals they will be visited by officers on a regular basis to check on their and their family's safety with the aim to dissuade them from being involved in further criminality involving firearms.

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Det Supt Henderson said the individuals identified tend to be at the 'higher end of firearms criminality,' and as such, the purpose of the notice is to engage with a specific individual, as opposed to their families or partners.

There were a total of 42 firearms discharges in South Yorkshire last year, two of which proved fatal. 25-year-old Abdullah Hassan was shot dead in Callow Drive on April 9, 2023, and 19-year-old dad-of-two Kevin Pokuta was killed in a shooting on Page Hall Road, Page Hall on December 12, 2023.

South Yorkshire Police's armed crime team was formed following a spike in firearms discharges in 2020, when a total of 86 were recorded by the force. Last year's discharge total represents a significant drop of 51 per cent, when compared to 2020.

Det Supt Henderson added: "We've formed the team in mid 2020, but in 2020 we had 86 viable firearms discharges in South Yorkshire. These are lethal weapons, these are not pellet guns and bb guns, these are shotguns and self-loading pistols so we had 86 [in 2020] and that's ultimately what created the creation of this team. Last year, we had 42. So that that's a significant reduction that over 50 per cent reduction in viable firearms discharges, but I absolutely accept that that is still too much of this type of criminality and it shouldn't be tolerated.”