As part of Operation Sceptre, Metropolitan police teams across London stepped up their work to tackle knife crime in the capital.
One Friday evening, I joined the Battersea safer neighbourhoods team on a weapons search in St Mary’s Park, to see how teams work during this time and to join with the Putney officers on a warrant.
My evening started at the Lavender Hill station. The team had already picked up two knives, and a small quantity of cannabis, which had all been seized, boxed and bagged up in the station, before 5pm.
June 20: Police begin week-long knife crime crackdown in Operation Sceptre
February 16: Operation Sceptre: Police seize five knives and report two shops for selling knives to undercover teenagers
I was briefed alongside the other police officers on the general updates in the area, plus the specifics of the operation before getting in the van and heading out.
Weapons searches are a less glamorous part of the job, as PCSO Adrian Olivares-Nunez explained to me, while PC Michelle Brooks roots around the bushes and plants in the middle of one of the estates.
The officers are looking for anything from blades to ammunition hidden in bins, shrubbery, or in empty spaces underneath apartment blocks.
We find evidence in one area of someone sleeping rough, and a fair few needles, but no weapons during our hour long search.
On to Putney, where we were called to for extra help in a drugs warrant.
The team, led by Sergeant Evans, has been compiling intelligence for some time on one house in Hobbes Walk, where there is suspicion of drugs production and sale.
MPS Specials will be involved the warrant too, and up to four suspects expected to be in the house.
On arrival, the officers line up with PC Joe Sellars in a helmet at the front, ready to break down the door.
Cries of “police” are followed by two short, sharp bangs, and the team is in.
But the suspects may have heard they were on the way, as the house is clear - no one, and no drugs, in sight, but the smell drugs lingers.
Officers joke about a leftover skittle being taken in as evidence, and leave a tad disappointed after the long period of work gathering intelligence.
In theory, this was where my night would end, but as we drive back to Lavender Hill police station, a call comes through about a fight off Battersea Rise.
The van we are in cannot blue light, so we are forced to wait in traffic, and when we arrive, one of the suspects has already fled.
It appears a delivery driver has been followed on part of his route, and then attacked after he pulled over to drop off a pizza. A crowd has gathered and the police spend time with each witness to take statements before the ambulance arrives.
PC Sellars tells me the first job for them at any crime scene is to preserve life, so the victim is the priority.
Then comes catching the suspect before gathering any and all evidence and containing the scene.
The delivery driver is going to be fine, and the witnesses have managed to get number plates of a driver, which are promptly run through the system and sent out to other forces.
As the victim is being treated by LAS, a paramedic hands a phone to the officers, which was found in his pockets, but does not appear to have come from anyone at the scene
The Safer Neighbourhood Team is not tied to the radio as rapid response teams are, so officers can spend as long as they need gathering information they need.
For PC Sellars, it’s a nice boost of excitement on shift and the opportunity to get the job done properly.
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