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Shootings have fallen to their lowest level in a decade as gun thugs struggle to adjust to lockdown restrictions and an increase in targeted activity.
Merseyside Police have recorded 38 firearm attacks this year, 22 fewer than at the end of September 2019.
The decline has come as the region’s underworld has been squeezed by a combination of Covid-19 measures and a major advance in police intelligence.
The nationwide shutdown aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus also forced criminals to adapt to an unprecedented environment.
Traffic on the road plummeted, Liverpool clubs were silenced, and suspicious activity, from drug dealers to gun couriers, became increasingly prominent on the quiet streets of Merseyside.
This did not stop the problems. Two men, Michael Rainsford and Stephen Maguire, were tragically shot to death in the spring.
And Wirral’s appearance at the firearm crime scene has caused concern. The municipality has seen a sharp increase in shootings after years of calm.
(Image: Photograph by Jason Roberts)
But the blockade forced those who operate at all levels of the criminal spectrum to adapt.
The changes included drug gangs from other areas, but those supplied from Merseyside were asked to collect the shipments, assuming the risk of traveling themselves rather than sending them packages.
Locally, the rise in home deliveries led drug traffickers to disguise themselves as package and food couriers in an attempt to integrate.
The measures made gun crime riskier than ever.
While there were about a dozen shootings between March 23, when the blockade went into effect, and mid-July, most of the attacks were shots fired at property that left no one injured.
And the region did not experience the same increase in shootings in the late spring and early summer that it has seen in recent years.
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The Merseyside mob was rocked by the announcement of Operation Venetic in early July.
Confirmation detectives had breached an encrypted messaging service trusted by some of the most powerful criminals in the region, and in the country, it caused chaos in the underworld.
Suspects of major drug and gun conspiracies continue to be arrested nearly three months later, as police continue to scrutinize EncroChat messages that offer unprecedented information on mafia affairs.
While the lockdown and Operation Venetic put criminals at a disadvantage, Merseyside police chiefs at the force’s Canning Place headquarters believe the drop in shootings was influenced by a number of additional factors.
Key among them was the creation of a specialized unit dedicated to investigating shootings in the region.
Launched 12 months ago, the team constantly analyzes intelligence and works to assess where the greatest threat lies.
The force also has an in-house forensic team that examines every weapon seized in the region, verifying if it can be linked to one or more shooting scenes.
The Merseyside Police are the only force in the country that can use such a resource.
The intelligence collected and reviewed by the firearms unit has been crucial throughout 2020. Forty-six weapons were seized this year, including 17 shotguns and one machine gun.
In recent weeks a Glock pistol and a loaded magazine were recovered at Bootle, a blank pistol at Old Swan and a pistol at Kirkdale.
Detectives have also made significant progress in shooting investigations this year.
The suspects have been charged in the fatal shooting of Rainsford and Maguire, and in connection with the firearm attacks on Wirral, in Bootle, Kirkdale and Prescot.
A series of shootings earlier this month highlighted the persistent threat that Merseyside posed, prompting Deputy Police Chief Ian Critchley to tell ECHO that his team would never take anything for granted in their battle against crime.
But other successes – the force continues to pride itself on what is now a three-year period without a shooting at Speke, once a hotspot for downloads – point to lasting progress.
Critchley said: “We would say that we are seeing the fewest number of firearms discharges in the last 10 years.
“I recognize the impact of Covid-19 on that, but I think this is due to the work of the police and the joint work with our community partners.
“We are not complacent in any way. This is a continuous and constant ambition, a relentless ambition, to make Merseyside a safer place.”
“We are really satisfied with some of the work that we have seen translate into arrests and seizures, but it is by no means done. This is the beginning, we are gaining momentum, making communities safer, returning criminal money to communities as well like locking up bad people who have no respect for life. “
Anyone with information on firearm crime can contact Merseyside Police at 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, at 0800 555 111
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