A CONTROVERSIAL police intelligence system featuring the names of thousands of gang members and their associates at risk of violence is saving lives, a senior Met cop has said.

The Metropolitan Police ‘Gang Matrix’  has been criticised as “institutional racism in action” because of its overwhelming focus on black males, who make up 77 per cent of the 3,500 names currently active on the database.

It has also been blasted for leading to many victims of crime and suspects without serious convictions being persecuted in education, jobs and housing after being included on it.

In extreme cases, it is claimed, children have been removed from the homes of alleged gang members on the list.

Two  reports due to be released this year, from Amnesty International and police monitoring group StopWatch, will criticise the intelligence tool for infringing  human rights.

And a review by Labour MP David Lammy in September last year said black and ethnic minorities on the gang database face harsher treatment in the criminal justice system.

Commander Jim Stokley, in charge of the Met’s drive against gang crime, defended the system yesterday, saying it helped police the threat of violence posed by gangs and to members of the public.

“It really can save lives,” he wrote in a blog  released by the London force.

Cdr Stokley said the intelligence was used to target gang activity through intervention diversion schemes or  enforcement to protect people at risk of falling victim to gang culture.

He revealed gang violence is  responsible for half of the capital’s firearms offences – around 2,500 a year – and also accounted for a fifth of  its 12,000 annual knife crimes.

Knife crime in London alone has claimed 16 lives so far this year, 11 of them aged 25 and under.

Last month three gang members and one of their girlfriends were jailed  for the horrific fatal stabbing of 15-year-old schoolboy Jermaine Goupall in  Thornton Heath, south London, on 8 August last year.

Cdr Stokley said this year’s violent statistics “speak for themselves” and “represent young people – much loved sons, brothers, friends. We must never forget the human tragedy and cost.”

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The matrix intelligence system was set up in the wake of the 2011 riots amid concerns about the Met’s lack of knowledge about gangs,  their affiliations and post code battle lines.

There must be at least two corroborated pieces of intelligence on individuals before they are included on  the list.

Cdr Stokley went on: “Inclusion is kept under constant review and whilst about 3,500 people are currently included, since 2012 over 4,000 people have been removed.”

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