Teen caught dumping machete as police make 250 arrests in violent crime crackdown
A teenager, who was banned from Leeds City Centre, has been locked up after dumping a machete as part of a crackdown on violent crime
The 17-year-old, who was subject to a Community Protection Notice banning him from the city centre, ran from officers when they spotted him.
Police said he discarded the weapon before being caught and arrested.
The youth was locked up for ten months for offences including possession of an offensive weapon.
It comes as West Yorkshire Police say they have made more than 250 arrests in just four weeks by a specialist team as part of a crackdown on violent crime.
West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Jemlock team made 256 arrests across West Yorkshire between December 1 and 31.
Police said 28 dangerous weapons were also taken off the streets including knives, hunting knives, machetes and a baseball bat.
Arrests made by officers included persons detailed for offences such as possession of an offensive weapon, section 18 GBH, and robbery.
Other arrests included those of three men who ran from Shears Yard, and were then located and detained on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.
Suspected Class A drugs and a knife was also recovered by officers with a further blade found in subsequent searches of one of the male’s homes.
Meanwhile, officers from Operation Jemlock also patrolled for alongside colleagues equipped with the force’s new Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology for the first time in December.
The technology, deployed in two clearly marked vans, works by scanning faces in real time and comparing them against an authorised watchlist of individuals.
Chief Inspector John Paul Berriff, who leads the Operation Jemlock team, said: “Officers from the Jemlock violent crime reduction team worked closely with colleagues this December as part of our Winter of Action to make towns and cities safer.
“My officers deployed on a large number of additional patrols in our 180 knife and violent crime hotspots, making a significant number of arrests and recovering dangerous weapons which have no place on our streets.
“The team were also really pleased to work with our new Live Facial Recognition technology. These mobile units give us a really important new ability to help locate dangerous individuals, safeguard the public, and locate those at risk.
He added: “Jemlock was formed specifically to reduce violent crime, and violent crime involving weapons in particular, so it has been welcome that our Spotlight patrols have resulted in a number of weapon related arrests and seizures over the last four weeks.
“More than 3100 weapons have been seized and in excess of 14,000 arrests made since Jemlock began in 2019 and we will be continuing this work in 2026 with large amounts of operational activity already in the planning stages.
“Additional late night policing will also continue in January by both Jemlock officers and uniformed colleagues as part of the Winter of Action to help keep our city and town streets safer.”
West Yorkshire’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Alison Lowe OBE said: “This proactive action from West Yorkshire Police is crucial to our collective efforts in reducing serious violence.
“It supports our ambition to halve knife crime over the next decade and complements the vital preventative work of the Violence Reduction Partnership.