Over £4 million will be invested into tackling gun and knife crime on Merseyside.
Merseyside Police are set to receive the grant from the Home Office’s £100m Serious Violence Fund to help with a crackdown on serious crime in the region.
Monday’s planned rollout comes after a weekend during which a series of incidents involving knifes took place in the Aintree and Bootle areas.
Two men suffered slash wounds on Saturday, June 29 on Litherland Road while a teenager was robbed at knife-point while riding his bike in Wango Lane.
The £4.2m grant is being used to fund Operation Target, a forcewide operation which will bring in extra dedicated staff, additional resources and equipment and targeted intelligence in a bid to tackle serious violence head-on.
As well as gun and knife crime, the force will also focus on serious assaults, armed robberies and murder investigations and wider issues such as night-time violence in city centre hot spots as well as County Lines and drugs use.
The new operation will see more high visibility police officers on the streets and the purchase of additional equipment such as hand held metal detectors and metal detecting gloves for frontline officers.
There will be increased disruption activity including stop searches; roadside checks; open land searches and test purchasing.
Chief Superintendent Matt Boyle said: “We know what concerns the people of Merseyside and although resources have been put into tackling these issues in the past this additional funding from the Home Office means our response will now be even bigger and better.
“We know issues such as knife and gun crime really impact on our communities and we are committed to tackling these issues head on and really making a difference.
“We now have the funding to put more officers in the places that we need them most – either high visibility patrols in our communities or in our city and town centres at night and peak times.
“It also means that we can develop our intelligence around offenders, pay for additional equipment to assist operations and investigations, engage with our local schools and communities and work with our partners to adopt a co-ordinated approach to tackling serious violence.
“This will be a one team approach with officers and staff from across the Force including roads policing, armed response, investigations, dogs and mounted and neighbourhood officers as well as call handlers, intelligence staff, forensics officers and support staff involved in making Operation Target a success.
“Some of this work will take place behind the scenes but I hope that the public will recognise our continued commitment to making Merseyside an even safer place to live, work and visit.
“I also hope that it will give confidence to people and reassure them that we will continue to take positive action to protect all victims of serious crime and bring criminals to justice.”