Lambeth top borough for firearms arrests

New figures released by the Metropolitan Police show that Lambeth was the borough with the most firearms-related arrests last year.

The Freedom of Information request to the Met disclosed the number of arrests for unlawful possession of a firearm and broke down the number of arrests by ethnicity. The data covers arrests made over the last ten years.

134 firearms arrests were made in Lambeth in financial year 2010/11. Across the capital some 1,500 people were arrested for unlawful possession of firearms.

Afro-Caribbean people were the most likely to be arrested for possession of a firearm, with 759 people from that ethnic group being arrested last year, followed by 526 white Europeans who were arrested. In contrast, just 11 Chinese and Japanese people were arrested for firearms possession.

The borough with the least number of arrests was Richmond-upon-Thames, which had just five firearm-related arrests last year.

Over the last ten years Lambeth was the ‘top’ borough for firearms arrests in every year except 2002/03. That year Hackney had a total of 109 arrests, compared with 105 arrests in Lambeth.

Arrests for firearms-related offences in London peaked in 2006/07 with 2112 arrests being made.

Image via Smarterlan, Flickr.