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One Met chief, 80 officers and helicopter raid home but suspect's already in cell
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent17.03.09
IT was supposed to be a high-profile operation to smash a notorious burglary gang with the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson leading from the front.
About 80 police and detectives including Sir Paul swooped on seven addresses in south London and Surrey today. Some of the raiding force were equipped with Taser stun guns.
At the address of the gang's suspected handler, a Met helicopter hovered overhead as officers used a battering ram to smash their way through the front door.
There was only one snag - the suspect was nowhere to be found. Two women were detained in the house and police seized £15,000 in cash and a purple Aston Martin DB7 parked in the drive.
Sir Paul, making his first high-profile public appearance since his appointment last month, was philosophical.
"That's policing," he declared. "This was the culmination of a long-running operation which has seen a number of people arrested. This was all about catching villains and making people feel safer in their homes. The operation was very professional. The suspect was not there but that's the nature of police work."
In fact, it later emerged that the suspect had been arrested at 1.30am today after an alleged break-in at a house in Kingston.
He had not yet been booked in at the police station in Kingston when Sir Paul mounted his raid in Kenley, near Purley, a few hours later. When informed of the arrest, he said: "This is good news and a good result, we have got our man after all."
Police have already arrested nine members of a gang which has been terrorising the affluent occupants of properties in south London and the Home Counties.
For several months the gang has been breaking into homes to steal the keys of high- performance cars such as Audis and BMWs. The commissioner said the dawn raid was part of what he described as the Met's daily "bread and butter" policing to make people feel safer in their home.
He rejected suggestions he wanted a return to old-fashioned policing, saying what he wanted to see was a return to "just policing".
He told the Standard that a key element of his new strategy was to see more officers on patrol on their own rather than in pairs.
He said: "I think the job of policing is about security. Our job is to secure the streets and secure people's homes, is that old-fashioned policing? I am not going to engage in those debates, as far as I am concerned it is just policing. As far as patrolling is concerned the default position should be single patrols, however there are occasions when that is not possible for a number of reasons. We have to make sure that we do everything possible to make that happen."
He also revealed that he was concerned about how police were seen when they were out on patrol. He said: "Instead of talking to each other I want them to look at people and talk to people. I want the public to feel that the cop owns the street on their behalf. "
Sir Paul said he believed the Met did the big jobs very well. The force's detection rate for murder was among the best in the world and he praised the force's major public order operations.
But he said that he was worried about some of the recent cases where the Met has been criticised, including that of black cab rapist John Worboys.
The taxi driver was jailed last week for sex attacks on 19 women but it emerged that police could have arrested him earlier and prevented many of the assaults. Sir Paul said: "I have looked at the report into this case and I am deeply concerned about what I have seen."
He also described the recruitment boycott by the Metropolitan Black Police Association as "regrettable".
Reader views (17)
I am very pleased at both the intensity of the policing and the outcome , I was a victim of these burglars and the trauma and sense of violation sufferred can not be measured in moetary terms, I CONGRATULATE THE MET ,especially about the intelligence behind this raid.
Please continue the good work and carry on just policing
- Jah, Kenley , Surrey
So how much did this cost the taxpayer ?
How can this happen in this day and age with all the latest communication equipment the Met have paid for out of our hard-earned money ?
- Kathy Doyle, London
Congratulations Sir Paul, 80 policemen and a helicopter looking for someone who is already in a police cell? Somehow I feel less safe in London with Sir Paul as the Met Commissioner of Police.
- George, London, UK
Wow the police is really just a laughing stock. Those Nu labor guys need firing before serious crime gets out of hand.
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
Er...a three bedroom semi has, let's say 8 rooms, 3 exit doors and a front and back gate. presumably good intelligence work told the met who would be (or should be)in the house this morning so, on what basis did Sir Paul estimate he would need 80 police officers to perform a relatively simple arrest?
Also take it from me---if anything is more likely to wake up chummy and warn him something was up it's a helicopter over the house.
Apart from that a result but an expensive one.
- Richard Meredith, huntingdon
Right/Left hand interface?
- Chuck Unsworth, London UK
Funniest thing I've heard all day.
- Massif, London
An easy mistake to make. I've done as much myself. They'll get over it. Clearly the door need to taken out anyway, and the 'copter pilot was probably grateful for the flying hours.
- Martin H. Watson, Teddington
Why all these critics, there was no way they could have known he had been caught red handed. I know someone who was the victim of one of these thefts. They stole 3 cars by breaking in and taking keys but 2 were recovered as they had trackers fitted. They left behind a knife in one of them so if they break in your place just leave the keys by the door and hope it is only the car they are after.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, England
I'm more critical of the courts than the police. It must be pretty hard to stay motivated when your criminal is back on the streets the next day on bail, and back on the streets on "community service" when the courts finally get around to sentencing him, all the while thumbing his nose at you and almost certainly continuing to commit thefts to finance his obvious drug habit.
Repeat criminals should always go to jail, and for a longer time for each subsequent crime. It may not reform them, but at least it'll cut the crime rate outside jail.
- Nigel, London
About par for the course. The only success they seem to have is in catching motorists and even that a static camera.
What an expensive blunder how about deducting the cost of this latest fiasco from his salary
- Mike, London England
Glad to see the new commissioner wants to cut down on waste. At least 17 officers according to your photo + helicopter to raid one address???
- Robert Turner, Corsham UK
Looks like the front line coppers did not want to be out done by an office copper.
will he patrol around the streets of scotland yard on a daily basis to keep in touch with his force and the public or is it just an other stunt? for news media
- Terry Chambers, London
Paul Stephenson has set his stall out clearly and the difference between him and Ian Blair is? Minimal.
Same silly prounouncements - lone patrolling for one (it is rare to see police officers on foot patrol these days - even the money wasting PCSOs are now in cars); and silly costly publicity stunts like this.
The good news is that his officers at work on nights, understaffed and under resourced, had already responded quickly and detained the target, so well done to them. It is testament to the state of things that the suspect had not been booked in when this raid took off in daylight -HOURS later. That it should take so long to do this and not have the resources to quickly launch a Section 18 or 32 PACE search is also worth noting. Well done though that property and cash have been seized as well as other people, no doubt accomplices and accessories to previous crimes.
Come on Paul - get a grip, get back to basics, listen to your slowly diminishing pool of experience and the Federation and stop talking in easily dismissed sound bites.
- Ranter, Maidstone, UK
"I want the public to feel that the cop owns the street on their behalf. "
Crikey, finally someone who must have listened to us.
- Jimbob, Kensington
So with the cops and press all in attendance, whetever happened to prejdicial news coverage influencing juries? The suspects would usually have to be arrested to be taken away, so with all the press filming and doing the usual wind up on the case in hand...if charged and presented in court it would be about time some Judge threw a case out, and told the Police and CPS that this was not acceptable
- Danny, Manchester
Good on the Commissioner for getting out there at the sharp end. So the suspect wasn't there, instead he'd already been arrested at a break in, surely this is a good thing? The police out there doing policing - it's what the public want. Keep it up.
- Huw Morgan, London
