Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe has been at the forefront of the deployment of social media after hosting a live webchat on tackling gangs.

Around 400 people joined the senior officer for the hour-long session, which provided him with an opportunity to gauge opinions and appraise feedback.

He also took tweets from Twitter users via the hashtag #AskMetBoss, while the event was publicised on Facebook. In all, the Commissioner took nearly 20 questions.

Commissioner Hogan-Howe said: "When I took up the post in the Met in September last year I said I wanted to speak directly with members of the public.

“The webchat was a great way of doing this and we will be holding them regularly in the future."

A series of online polls were run during the event, posing questions to the participants in order to help the Metropolitan Police understand their views and concerns about gangs.

Some 17 per cent said gangs were the biggest problem in their area; 30 per cent said that while gangs caused trouble, dealing with other criminal activity was more important.

As reported on PoliceOracle.com the Commissioner recently announced a renewed approach to cracking down on gangs, spearheaded by the Trident Gang Crime Command.

During three days of activity across the Capital, there were 515 people arrested and weapons, drugs and cash seized as scores of warrants were executed.

The new approach means approximately 1,000 officers are dedicated to tackling on gang crime with the central Trident Gang Crime Command supported by task forces across London.