Essex Police target gangs and drug barons (From Echo)

Essex Police target gangs and drug barons

1:30am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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ORGANISED gangs harming communities and dealing drugs will be targeted by police under new plans announced by the Chief Constable.

Jim Barker-McCardle said class A drug dealers and organised gangs would be the focus of new police measures.

But he stressed at a meeting of the Essex Police Authority that there needed to be a balance between meeting targets and tackling crimes which may never get reported to the police.

This includes flushing out organised gangs which could take the best part of a year-long operation – but may not tick the boxes to meet certain targets.

He explained: “Every time we carry out a proactive operation we discover crime the public aren’t reporting to us.”

The aim is to dismantle organised gangs who operate in Essex by taking them down and jailing all the members.

Police also aim to at least disrupt the gangs involved in crimes at the lower end of the spectrum.

Mr Barker-McCardle said: “It means quite literally taking the most serious, pernicious, organised crime groups in Essex and not just disrupting them, but taking the group to pieces and preventing it operating again.”

Priorities in his Policing Plan and three-year strategy were to deliver strong local policing, protect people from serious harm, develop and value staff, and achieve better value for money.