Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is marking a significant milestone as the dedicated knife crime team Operation Venture marks three years of proactive patrols and intelligence-led work in the community.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is marking a significant milestone as the dedicated knife crime team Operation Venture marks three years of proactive patrols and intelligence-led work in the community.
Since their formation in December 2022, Operation Venture have made a significant dent in criminality across the force area – making 958 arrests, recovering 284 weapons and removing them from the streets, seizing 419 vehicles and over £780,000 cash, and conducting 2571 stop searches with 1007 being positive (rate of 39%) on key offenders up to 30 November 2025.
The team move across different hotspot areas all over Greater Manchester, strengthening resources in districts to tackle violent crime and proactively looking to prevent, deter, reduce, and tackle knife crime head on, and at the root causes.
Their work feeds into the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, a multi-agency team that seeks to prevent violence by addressing the underlying causes.
Over the past year alone, the team have engaged in multiple proactive patrols resulting in arrests across Greater Manchester seizing weapons, drugs and cash.
Alongside proactive patrolling to tackle hot spot areas as well as using intelligence to determine patrol plans, the team have also been working towards strengthening relationships between young people and GMP through sport such as with Bury Defence Academy, aimed at empowering young people by providing them with a safe place, and an outlet to express themselves to divert them away from violence.
Superintendent Richard Thompson, who leads GMP’s response to knife crime and serious violence said: “Knife crime has no place in our communities and on our streets. We know how devastating the impact knife crime can cause on families, and the wider community.
“Operation Venture was set up to tackle the knife crime head-on and they are specially selected and ring-fenced to respond to serious violence, working across Greater Manchester helping to detect and deter violent crime.
“Over the past three years, the team have dedicated over 37,000 hours to proactive patrolling around key hotspot locations, seizing weapons, making arrests and keeping the streets of Greater Manchester safer.
“As a force compared to last year, knife crime is down 10% with over 470 fewer crimes and October 2025 saw 61 positive stop-searches per day across the force which includes those from our dedicated team.
“We cannot tackle knife crime alone however and rely on intelligence from our communities. Intelligence given to us, either directly or through anonymous channels helps us to understand our hotspot areas and ensure our teams are tackling the concerns and issues that matter to you. I would encourage anyone who has information relating to knife crime and serious violence to speak out.
“We are committed to tackling knife crime head on, and with your support we can continue to arrest people, take weapons off the streets and keep people safe.”
The work of the Operation Venture team feeds into the force’s overall stance around knife crime with teams working proactively across districts to tackle knife crime alongside partner agencies from local councils to youth agencies looking at ways to educate young people.
A recent announcement from the Home Office has seen Manchester announced as one of the pilot areas to tackle knife crime and serious violence with an investment of £300,000 to develop innovative solutions to prevent crime before it happens and target resources where we know issues occur. Further information on the announcement can be found here.
