One Met chief, 80 officers and helicopter raid home but suspect's already in cell

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IT was supposed to be a high-profile operation to smash a notorious burglary gang with the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson leading from the front.

About 80 police and detectives including Sir Paul swooped on seven addresses in south London and Surrey today. Some of the raiding force were equipped with Taser stun guns.

At the address of the gang's suspected handler, a Met helicopter hovered overhead as officers used a battering ram to smash their way through the front door.

There was only one snag - the suspect was nowhere to be found. Two women were detained in the house and police seized £15,000 in cash and a purple Aston Martin DB7 parked in the drive.

Sir Paul, making his first high-profile public appearance since his appointment last month, was philosophical.

"That's policing," he declared. "This was the culmination of a long-running operation which has seen a number of people arrested. This was all about catching villains and making people feel safer in their homes. The operation was very professional. The suspect was not there but that's the nature of police work."

In fact, it later emerged that the suspect had been arrested at 1.30am today after an alleged break-in at a house in Kingston.

He had not yet been booked in at the police station in Kingston when Sir Paul mounted his raid in Kenley, near Purley, a few hours later. When informed of the arrest, he said: "This is good news and a good result, we have got our man after all."

Police have already arrested nine members of a gang which has been terrorising the affluent occupants of properties in south London and the Home Counties.

For several months the gang has been breaking into homes to steal the keys of high- performance cars such as Audis and BMWs. The commissioner said the dawn raid was part of what he described as the Met's daily "bread and butter" policing to make people feel safer in their home.

He rejected suggestions he wanted a return to old-fashioned policing, saying what he wanted to see was a return to "just policing".

He told the Standard that a key element of his new strategy was to see more officers on patrol on their own rather than in pairs.

He said: "I think the job of policing is about security. Our job is to secure the streets and secure people's homes, is that old-fashioned policing? I am not going to engage in those debates, as far as I am concerned it is just policing. As far as patrolling is concerned the default position should be single patrols, however there are occasions when that is not possible for a number of reasons. We have to make sure that we do everything possible to make that happen."

He also revealed that he was concerned about how police were seen when they were out on patrol. He said: "Instead of talking to each other I want them to look at people and talk to people. I want the public to feel that the cop owns the street on their behalf. "

Sir Paul said he believed the Met did the big jobs very well. The force's detection rate for murder was among the best in the world and he praised the force's major public order operations.

But he said that he was worried about some of the recent cases where the Met has been criticised, including that of black cab rapist John Worboys.

The taxi driver was jailed last week for sex attacks on 19 women but it emerged that police could have arrested him earlier and prevented many of the assaults. Sir Paul said: "I have looked at the report into this case and I am deeply concerned about what I have seen."

He also described the recruitment boycott by the Metropolitan Black Police Association as "regrettable".

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