Meet PC Anthony Johnson - a member of GMP's Operation Venture team

"I’ve been with GMP for 20 years and until now I’d been working on the Oldham Division. I’d decided it was time for something different but I wanted to move for the right job. Then GMP formed Operation Venture to tackle serious violence and knife crime.

"I see this Operation as a chance to go back to the basics of what we should be doing as police officers – which is getting out there, catching the criminals and stopping serious crime.

"I’ve seen a lot of violence in my 20 years’ service. I dealt with one lad who had been stabbed and tragically he ended up dying at the side of the road whilst I was giving him CPR. He was only 19.

"Sadly we’re seeing a number of young people and kids carrying knives. These kids say they’re carrying knives because they think they have too and they need to protect themselves. But you're more likely to be a victim of your own knife by carrying one.

"We locked up another group of young lads once for a murder committed in 2020 and they were all sentenced to many years in prison. It came about after an argument over a video - so this group got together, tracked this lad down and stabbed him to death.

"I think we need to start doing things right and I think we owe it to our communities. We’ve seen too many young kids dying for no reason and I think now is the time to be robust and visible when it comes to knife crime."