‘Operation Vulcan’s Now At Piccadilly Gardens In Attempt For GMP To Crack Down On Knife Crime

Greater Manchester Police have brought Operation Vulcan to Piccadilly Gardens after huge success in the operation at Cheetham Hill and Strangeways.

The operation is a strategy put into place that increases police presence in areas with high crime rate, with metal detectors catching those carrying dangerous weapons.

The undercover operation has led to 24 arrests in the Piccadilly gardens area. As of May this year, 19 people have been charged with drug offences in connection to the operation. The project now aims to tackle drug crimes as well as knife crime.

Detective Superintendent Neil Blackwood said Greater Manchester Police “want Piccadilly Gardens to feel safer and become a more welcoming place for people to live, work, and socialise”.

Since 2020, the possession of weapons in Greater Manchester has increased by 27.5%.

GMP executed 23 warrants in one day and arrested 22 men and women in suspicion to drug offences. This is an example of how they’re implementing new tactics to reduce the crime rate in Manchester.

Throughout the day, they seized almost £10k cash, 100s of snap bags of drugs, and recovered several crucial mobile phones and sim cards.

Operation Vulcan and the increased police presence has demonstrated the urgency for change around Manchester City as the operation resembles the strict security measures in airports.

GMP say that since the beginning of the operation and the introduction of the ‘knife arch’, violent crime and public order offences have reduced by 50%.

Cheetham Hill and Strangeways

Just under a year ago, police launched Operation Vulcan in Cheetham Hill and Strangeways. Since then, they have seized over £1m worth of counterfeit items from the area, more than 200 shops have been shut down, more than 220 arrests have been made and more than £520,000 in cash seized.

GMP’s commitments

GMP now say that their commitments for Picadilly’s operation focus on reducing knife crime but are also about raising awareness of: ‘the damage caused by drugs trafficking and signpost support agencies to those most vulnerable‘ and are taking a ‘zero tolerance approach‘ to drug offences.