London mayor Sadiq Khan joined police on patrol in Greenwich yesterday and assisted a specialist anti-social behaviour enforcement team in a knife-sweep of the area.

Khan spent time with the Royal Greenwich Safer Spaces team as part of Operation Spectre, a national campaign to suppress knife crime.

The mayor tweeted: “Keeping Londoners safe is my top priority”.

According the Khan, there has been a reduction in gun crime, burglaries, robberies and homicides in London. However, teen homicides are on the rise.

Chief Inspector Trevor Lawry attributed the increase to social media, telling ITV News: “The goading that you see on social media, the way in which people can use that to get people to have disagreements with others, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done there, I think that’s the area I’m seeing the most around young people.”

Greenwich introduced Safer Spaces Community Safety Enforcement Officers in 2019 to reduce anti-social behaviour, environmental crime and other community safety concerns. The officers collaborate with law enforcement agencies.

Superintendent Jim Corbett, who led Op Sceptre for the Met, said: “I am grateful to all those partners and community members who worked alongside us and joined our efforts.”

Matthew Pennycook, Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, said it is important to reduce knife crime: “If we are ever to bring this cycle of misery under control we have to double down on a public health approach to the problem of serious youth violence.”

As Operation Spectre draws to an end after a week long run the MET Police tweeted a video. It said: “We are not complacent. We will continue to work with our partners to protect our communities.”