'They just don't care anymore': On the street with the elite police unit tackling the rise in knife crime

"I'd say the last two years people are just - they just don't care anymore, they are using knives and doing all sorts." PC Maguire, 28, speaks with the authority of experience: experience that comes from working in Greater Manchester's most high-crime areas.

"I remember when I was a teenager," she says, "you'd never really hear of people carrying a knife or anything. But now it's the normal thing to do." "It's mad," she adds.

PC Maguire is part of Operation Venture, an elite policing unit within Greater Manchester Police set up to tackle serious violence and knife crime. Over the past two months, we've been given exclusive access to watch them work.

Moped chase We're on a Friday afternoon vehicle patrol in south Manchester with another member of the Venture team, Sgt Mohammed Waqas, when his radio, and that of fellow officer PC Hodge, who's driving, starts pinging. Their plain clothes team has spotted two youths in balaclavas, on a moped, weaving in and out of traffic.

"We suspect they are involved in some sort of knife-point robberies," Sgt Waqas says. The moped has also had its registration plates pulled off - officers suspect it's been stolen.

The team starts searching the streets and is flagged down by a passing driver who says he's just had to swerve to avoid hitting a moped. "They're little idiots, up there!" the driver says, visibly angry.

"There are kids around. "I swear to god I felt like f*****g chasing them down, and kicking them up the arse." Meanwhile, the unit's covert officers are waiting where the moped has been previously spotted.

When it returns, a short while later, there are three youths onboard. The team detain one, a 16-year-old who is known to them, but the two other youths get away.

Sgt Waqas and PC Hodge take up the chase, following the moped at speed as it runs red lights. Incredibly, we see one of the moped riders filming it all on their mobile phone.

Later, the officers tell us: "They'll probably post it online." But right now, they are focused on trying to catch them, which, in rush hour traffic, proves impossible. They lose them - "yeah, total loss.