Officers swarmed Trafford this week as a crackdown on crime returned to the area.

Operation Avro is a police operation which comes to a different district of Greater Manchester once a month, with the aim of "attacking the things which matter most to communities".

The day started at around 6am on Tuesday (January 24) with raids at a number of addresses, two of which The Messenger attended on Chalfont Avenue, Urmston and Gorse Crescent, Stretford.

Within a couple of hours there were more than a dozen arrests as well as discoveries of drugs and weapons, including one fashioned from a piece of wood with nails and screws in it.

The day turned to different activities, such as the search operation at Trafford Bar tram station and the traffic operation on Chester Road, Stretford and Shaftesbury Avenue, Timperley.

In a rare moment of respite Chief Superintendent Colette Rose, of GMP Trafford, explained the logic to this crackdown on crime.

Chief Supt Rose, an ex-Loreto Grammar School student, said: "Operation Avro pulls resources from all over the force, and we go into a geographical area to do loads of different activities throughout the day, attacking the things which matter most to communities.

"When we look at what we want to do with the team we look at the things the communities have been telling us. 

"We do it throughout the year, but it's about doing it in a different way. Today, it's about doing it in a visible way.

"We also want people to speak to us. We want people to tell us their experiences and the issues which matter most to them so we can respond to it."

In an interview a little over a year ago the chief superintendent spoke to The Messenger about confidence and trust in the police in light of the conviction of Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, for the murder of Sarah Everard.

The problem is back in the headlines after the conviction of another Metropolitan Police officer, David Carrick, for sexual offences against 12 women.

But the chief superintendent believes this is one reason Operation Avro is so important.

She said: "In every organisation there are people who undermine the confidence and trust. You see it in the press and it in turn hurts GMP. It hurts the officers who are here every day.

"We want people to speak to us, we want to work with our communities, we want to work with our partners, and we want to make the places we live and work in safer for everybody. The confidence and trust is huge, but it is a long time in the making."

This article was written by Jack Tooth. Jack is the reporter for The Messenger and covers anything and everything from within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford.

To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.