A POLICE anti-violence campaign has hit almost a thousand arrests.

West Yorkshire Police announced that Operation Jemlock has secured 908 arrests since it was set up in April this year.

The total has almost doubled in under two months.

Since April, police officers have also seized 83 weapons, with 852 stop-search enquiries made.

Operation Jemlock was instigated by Temporary Chief Constable at the time, John Robins.

He met with the Home Secretary in March and police forces - including West Yorkshire - were then given greater stop-and-search powers.

The focus was on tackling the threat of knife crime and the force also received additional funding of £4.02 million to support the operation.

Data from Police UK shows that, since Jemlock began, stop-searches in Bradford City have increased in all but one month, when compared to last year.

The data goes up to July of this year and the biggest increase comes from that month.

In July 2018, officers carried out 31 stop-searches in the area.

Whereas this year, there were 66, equating to an increase of nearly 113 per cent.

The latest announcement also highlighted 209 vehicles have been stopped since Operation Jemlock began.