Armed police to patrol London gun hotspots

LONDON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Britain's Scotland Yard announced it has formed a new police unit that will patrol violent hotspots in London carrying firearms on a regular basis.

Officials said the team is made up the Metropolitan Police specialist firearms unit, criticized for the 2005 shooting death of Jean Charles de Menezes at a subway station after mistaking him for a suicide bomber, The Times of London reported Friday.

The armed patrols are being deployed after the city has seen a dramatic increase in crimes involving guns, police said. The team will target areas in North London and south of the Thames River, both affected by the presence of street gangs.

Scotland Yard said that the armed patrols began in June as a pilot program with a 21-officer team and would double that number by November, The Times said.

Nationally, crime statistics indicated a 5 percent drop in firearms offenses, and showed gun crime down by as much as 27 percent on Merseyside, the newspaper reported. However, London experienced a 17 percent jump -- from 1,484 to 1,737 firearm offenses -- in a 12-month period through September.

A spokesman for London Mayor Boris Johnson said the mayor sought reassurances from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson concerning the parameters on using armed police personnel.

"The mayor has been reassured that there is no intention of using armed police in the routine manner (as) suggested," the spokesman said. "Armed police have a role but that should be the exception, not the norm."