SAJID JAVID will declare war on knife thugs next week by launching a ‘Stop and Search’ blitz to end the bloodshed on British streets.
The Home Secretary will rip up reforms instigated five years ago by Theresa May and give police far more power to challenge gang members.
Getty Images – Getty
The Tory leadership contender is also expected on Monday to unveil a new ‘Prevent-style’ public health programme that will treat would-be knife thugs like jihadi extremist.
Under the changes to Stop and Search, cops in seven regions will no longer have to prove “reasonable grounds” are needed before stopping a suspect.
Sources said the push will likely last for six months and be billed as a ‘pilot scheme’ to spare the blushes of the PM.
As well as London, South Yorkshire is one of the areas expected to be included in the pilot.
Under the new Prevent-style project – predicted by The Sun earlier this month – councils, schools and agencies will be required to report children considered at risk of being dragged into knife and gang crime.
They would then be offered support to help turn them away from violence.
The programme apes the ‘Prevent’ programme used to identify children at risk of being sucked into extremism.
A source said: “It’s taken a while to get everyone in Government on the same page but it’s happening – and now we can finally fight back.”
TIME FOR NEW APPROACH
The new push mirrors a blitz on knife crime launched in Glasgow in the mid-2000s to end the bloodshed on the capital’s streets.
Deaths from stabbings were halved in a decade. Theresa May radically tightened up the rules around Stop and Search in 2014 when she ran the Home Office.
She claimed officers “did not have reasonable grounds” to intervene in more than a quarter of cases. Knife crime has now soared to the highest level in a decade.
Mr Javid demanded the PM relax her changes to the so-called ‘Section 60’ powers in Cabinet earlier this month after the murder of Romford teen Jodie Chesney.
The Met earlier this week revealed plans to dramatically increase the number of officers working full-time in schools across the capital.
Deputy assistant commissioner Mark Simmons said there were 420 working in schools – up from 280 over a year ago – but that the aim was to reach 600.
Alamy
