Met Police gangs ‘matrix’ database under scrutiny

The increase in teenage knife crime has put Britain’s largest police force under increasing pressure to tackle gang-related violence. One of the systems the Metropolitan Police use is its gangs matrix database, which holds information on thousands of people.

But campaigners have claimed that some teenagers who are nothing to do with gangs might be on the list, without even knowing about it. Scotland Yard says it helps “prevent young lives being lost”, but the way it uses the database is being investigated by the information watchdog.