Operation Trident, or simply Trident, is a
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
unit, originally set up in 1998 for the Black community, as a community led initiative with the police to tackle
gun crime
Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, an ...
and homicide disproportionately affecting
African-Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...
communities, following a series of shootings in the
London borough
The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at ...
s of
Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
and
Brent. By 2008 the unit was responsible for investigating ''all'' non-fatal shootings for the Metropolitan Police, and in February 2012 the unit's remit was again expanded: the new Trident Gang Crime Command was launched, incorporating responsibility for tackling wider gang crime. In 2013 the unit gave up responsibility for investigating fatal shootings, which was taken over by the
Homicide and Serious Crime Command
The Homicide and Serious Crime Command (SCD 1) was an Operational Command Unit of the Metropolitan Police responsible for the investigation of homicide and other serious crimes in London. Most of their work was carried out by Murder Investigat ...
.
Trident is currently led by Detective Chief Superintendent Dean Haydon, who joined the team from the Counter Terrorism Command in 2012.
The perceived importance of Trident's mission was such that it was established as a dedicated
Operational Command Unit, called the Trident Operational Command Unit, within the Metropolitan Police
Specialist Crime Directorate
The Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD) was one of the main branches of London's Metropolitan Police Service. It provided highly visible specialist policing services across the whole of London. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley had previously le ...
.
The campaign uses
gun amnesties and
advertisement
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
s encouraging people to phone
Crimestoppers
Crime Stoppers or Crimestoppers is a community program that helps people to provide anonymous information about criminal activity. Often managed by non-profit groups or the police, it operates separately from the emergency telephone number sy ...
with information related to gun crime. These advertisements appear in the
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
,
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
s, on
petrol pumps,
telephone boxes, and on the
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
. As part of Specialist Crime and Operations Directorate, Trident is also known as SC&O8.
As the timeline of the police unit and program has roughly paralleled the development and growth of the rap-styled UK
Grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
* Grime (music genre), a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game
* "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
urban music scene, Trident and Grime have had numerous and varied interactions that have mirrored early controversy and conflict around American Gangsta Rap. While some artists like
Giggs have spoken out against what they claim is heavy-handed censorship and attempts to sabotage their careers by applying pressure to venue owners, radio stations, and record labels, others like the Roll Deep Crew have worked with Trident to create anti-violence messaging packaged in ways more likely to reach marginalized urban youth. Prominent artist
JME, particularly known for his conscious lyrics which are dismissive of content that relies on excessively violent hyperbole, released a short film via VICE Magazine, entitled "The Police vs Grime Music", investigating the legal details of the phenomenon of police suppression of grime events.
In 2006, Trident officers raided the home of vintage gun enthusiast Mick Shepherd, seizing much of his collection. At the time, press reports claimed a "huge gun-smuggling racket" had been uncovered, and that guns sold by Shepherd were linked to a number of murders. After being held in
Pentonville
Pentonville is an area on the northern fringe of Central London, in the London Borough of Islington. It is located north-northeast of Charing Cross on the Inner Ring Road. Pentonville developed in the northwestern edge of the ancient parish o ...
and then the high-security
Belmarsh
His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh is a Category-A men's prison in Thamesmead, south-east London, England. The prison is used in high-profile cases, particularly those concerning national security. Within the prison grounds there is a unique unit c ...
prisons on
remand for 10 months awaiting trial, Shepherd was acquitted of all 13 firearms offences with which he was charged.
See also
*
Crime in London
Figures on crime in London are based primarily on two sets of statistics: the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime data. Greater London is generally served by three police forces; the Metropolitan Police which is ...
*
Yardie
Yardie (or Yaadi) is a term often used, particularly within the Caribbean expatriate and Jamaican diaspora, to refer to people of Jamaican origin, though its exact meaning changes depending on context. The term is derived from the Jamaican pat ...
*
Specialist Crime Directorate
The Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD) was one of the main branches of London's Metropolitan Police Service. It provided highly visible specialist policing services across the whole of London. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley had previously le ...
*
Death of Mark Duggan
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
References
External links
Claudia Webbe Resigns as Chair of IAG* .
Stop the guns* .
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{{Metropolitan Police
Firearm laws
Trident
A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm.
The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other marine ...
Metropolitan Police units
Organised crime in London