Officers packed into the briefing room at Tottenham Police Station as Sergeant Daniel James unveiled the details behind a drug clampdown that would show the uphill battle the Met Police are facing across London. Operation Martello, carried out on Wednesday (August 20) in Seven Sisters in Haringey, is one of a number of visible policing activities being carried out across 20 hotspots identified in the capital.
With the force set to close almost half of its station front counters by the end of the year, there has been a renewed focus on neighbourhood policing. The morning of the operation, the Met boasted of 1,376 arrests made in the hotspots between June 30 and August 10 – up a third on last year – as part of the Safer Summer Streets initiative.
Joining more than a dozen officers outside Seven Sisters Underground Station, it was not hard to see how. The area, according to Sgt James, was rife with theft, violent crime and drug offences – but the latter was the primary focus as police, paired off for safety purposes, started the crackdown.
Assisting the operation were two drug detection dogs, specially trained to identify common illegal substances. As well as being friendly to bemused passers-by, they gave extra attention to individuals carrying any suspicious substance and were able to sniff out exactly where it was being held.
It only took a few minutes for the first individual, a young man passing by the station entrance, to be stopped and questioned. He was subsequently taken aside by three officers, searched and released – but not before being handed a Community Resolution (CR) order.
CRs are, in common Met Police practice, given to first-time offenders found with cannabis. The Mayor of London has previously said they are a “proportionate method of responding to lower level and less serious allegations of crime” rather than arresting someone.
As the minutes passed, the stops came thick and fast. Within half an hour of setting up, seven people had been approached by police after being marked by the dogs.
In the hour that the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) observed the operation, this figure increased to 19. One thing was clear – the operation had targeted drug users, rather than dealers – for now. Many were young men, but the LDRS saw three women, a young couple and an elderly man also stopped and searched.
The vast majority of individuals stopped were from an ethnic minority background at a time when relations between the Met Police and the non-white community are still tense. In 2023, YouGov research found that 56 per cent of ethnic minority Britons said they do not trust the Metropolitan Police, compared to just 32 per cent who do.
However, individuals from ethnic minorities observing the stops did not seem to mind. One told the LDRS: “It’s good they are doing this – it helps keep us safe if the drugs are off the streets.”
Questioned about this, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ben Russell told the LDRS that the use of dogs showed the operation was completely “unbiased” – rather than relying on the discretion of officers, it was the objective sense of smell that prompted stop and searches.
In every case, officers faced total compliance from everyone they approached. Some actively admitted they were drug users without being searched first – perhaps comfortable in the knowledge that they would only be issued a CR rather than spending a night in a jail cell.
An hour after the operation started, the Met had their first big catch. A young man – confirmed to the LDRS to be an adult – was arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs.
Minutes later, plain clothed officers patrolling nearby ensured another arrest after suspecting an individual of possessing Class A substances. Upon further inspection, there was an “immigration marker” on the man, meaning he was also of interest to the Home Office.
At this point, 90 minutes into the operation, the LDRS departed the scene. In footballing terms, the Met had scored a late winner in arresting suspected drug dealers after toiling with users in the early stages.
Officers would stay put till 5pm, stopping 68 individuals with 15 positive searches – a 22 per cent success rate. The Met have confirmed similar operation would take place across London’s crime hotspots in a bid to clean up the city and restore community trust.
While the force will point to their arrest figures as a measure of success, whether criminals will simply migrate to other areas of the capital – ensuing a game of ‘whack-a-mole’ with the Met – is yet to be seen.
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