It Can Be Stopped: A proven blueprint to stop gang violence in London and beyond
Our report, It Can Be Stopped, launched today with a foreword from the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, sets out a proven blueprint to stop gang violence in London and beyond, building on the experiences of Boston, Cincinnati and Glasgow.
Executive Summary
In the near-decade since Dying to Belong was published in 2009, gangs have remained a part of life in Britain. At the time, we estimated there were 50,000 gang members across Britain, today that number is estimated to be closer to 70,000.
In London, the focus of this report, the police estimate that there are up to 250 gangs and 4,500 members. While gangs are not responsible for all serious violence, they commit far more than their fair share. It is estimated that gangs are responsible for as much as half of all knife crime with injury, 60 per cent of shootings, and 29 per cent of reported child sexual exploitation.
The social and economic costs of serious violence are enormous — and for those left to pick up the pieces, the trauma and distress is almost impossible to measure. In 2003 the Home Office estimated the economic and social costs of each homicide to be £1.5 million, a figure that was subsequently updated to £1.8 million in 2010. Adjusting for inflation to 2017 prices, we estimate that the cost of a homicide today is £2.2 million.
We must bring an end to the disastrous effects of gang violence. To this end, this report offers a Group Violence Intervention model, tried and tested globally with proven results.
Based on extensive polling, statistical evidence, and case studies of outstanding practice, this paper proposes a new system that would focus on both law enforcement and community support.
The violence can and must stop
Almost a decade ago, in our report Dying to Belong, we highlighted the successes of Group Violence Intervention (GVI). This model is based on the work of Professor David Kennedy and its success has seen the implementation of GVI in Boston, Cincinnati, and Glasgow. In fact, GVI has now been adopted in more than 77 cities worldwide with dramatic results.
Recommendation 1: A new Safer Streets Group Violence Intervention, taking the proven blueprint that has been successfully implemented in Glasgow, Boston, and Cincinnati, to tackle the problem of gang and gang-related violence.
Recommendation 2: The Metropolitan Police should conduct a detailed assessment of London’s 32 boroughs and 632 neighbourhood wards to identify those areas presenting the highest risk and harm, making them worthy of designation as Safer Streets Zones.
Recommendation 5: The Mayor of London should create and appoint a Safer Streets Commissioner with responsibility for leading the Safer London GVI centrally and holding partners accountable for the effective implementation of the intervention.
Recommendation 7: The Mayor should convene an Implementation Taskforce with representation from the Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency, HMPPS, the National Probation Service, the London Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC), housing enforcement, local authorities, HMRC and DWP to develop approaches in support of encouraging and/or compelling call-ins and the development of protocols and approaches to the consequences strand.
The law and order London needs
More broadly, the issues and proposals outlined in this section contribute towards creating a Metropolitan Police that is fit to face the future, a goal that the Commissioner set out during her first major media interview shortly after being appointed. Our polling suggests that a net 22% of Londoners are satisfied with the Metropolitan Police whereas only a net 5% of Londoners are satisfied with courts. There is therefore a clear need for a rebooting of the law and order response to the problem of gang and related offending.
Recommendation 14: The Government and Home Office should include provisions for a Serious Violence Reduction Order (SVRO) within the Offensive Weapons Bill that is currently progressing through Parliament. A SVRO is a suspicionless stop and search order allowing police to search any offender still on sentence. The Order would only last for the duration of the sentence given by the court.
Recommendation 13: Initial and in-service training should better prepare and equip officers with the skills and experience to take heated high-stress encounters and convert them into a conversational style. Officers should be assessed on their ability to not just complete realistic stop and search scenarios lawfully and safely, but to demonstrate an ability and willingness to conduct appropriate after-care.
Recommendation 16: Youth Offending Services and Teams (YOS/YOTs) working with young people at risk of criminal exploitation or gang membership should, over the course of the supervision period, connect that young person into existing youth services, provision, or centres that can provide a positive environment and trusted positive relationships for the long-term, beyond the length of the order.
Recommendation 17: The Government should initiate an urgent review of victim and witness intimidation and look to bring forward measures to better protect victims and witnesses from such intimidation. These measures could and should extend to consider the use of GPS tagging of suspected offenders and the provision of a paired handheld tag for victims and witnesses, alerting them in the event of proximity, and triggering safety plans. Courts must recognise the public interest in ensuring justice is done and be rigorous in remanding in custody individuals who engage in such activity.
Recommendation 21: The Metropolitan Police should overhaul their local communications strategy, ensuring that named borough commanders and Dedicated Ward Officers are better known within their communities. Both these roles should come with a minimum tenure to build trust and relationships.
Creating belonging
Young people need to feel like they are understood and that they have a sense of security in their relationships with others. It is necessary that young people, who may otherwise be susceptible to gang membership, know that there is an alternative community that is available and willing to offer them comprehensive support.
Recommendation 26: The Mayor of London should set an expectation that London’s 32 boroughs each provide access to services in their locality to help parents during the first 1,001 days, but also in relation to where parents have concerns about aggressive or anti-social behaviour or concerns about involvement in gangs or criminality.
Recommendation 28: Government should redirect funding from the National Citizen Service to create capacity in priority areas to support uniformed youth organisations and other local youth provision that signs up to the principles of a Safer Streets GVI.
Recommendation 30: All secondary schools and colleges in London should either have a Volunteer Police Cadet programme or be affiliated to one nearby. The roll-out and strengthening of the VPC should be prioritised to expedite roll-out across the Safer Streets Zones.
Recommendation 31: The Home Office should commission research to develop a behavioural detection training package for police officers in relation to identifying potential female gang members and/or behaviours associated with a female carrying or holding weapons or other items. This training package should help empower both male and female police officers to use their powers more effectively in relation to young women and gangs.
Beyond London
The issue of gang violence is prevalent in London, but it is not limited to our capital city. The rise of county lines has brought new regional turf wars over drug dealership and gang rivalry issues. Further, other cities have their own gang networks. We therefore recommend that other parts of the UK experiencing significant serious violence linked to gangs adopt the GVI approach.
Recommendation 34: The Ministry of Justice should develop a comprehensive devolution strategy for Police and Crime Commissioners that includes electronic monitoring and allows for local areas to commission electronic monitoring services that are suitable to their local needs and requirements, such as incorporating within a GVI approach.
Recommendation 35: In addition to joint intelligence-led enforcement activity between British Transport Police (BTP) and local police forces, the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) should work with BTP to develop regularly updated training packages for railway staff to facilitate the identification of rail-enabled county line activity.
Recommendation 36: The Home Office should work with the hire car industry to ensure the creation of a data-sharing tool allowing law enforcement to establish who should legally be in possession of and is insured to drive hired vehicles. This could be achieved through a monetary prize to encourage efficiency and innovation.
Recommendation 40: Police and Crime Commissioners, Mayors, and Chief Constables beyond London should consider the extent to which gangs and group violence are driving local patterns of knife crime, gun crime, and serious violence. Where identified, we encourage consideration of a Group Violence Intervention.
Leadership is needed today and for the next decade
The issue of gangs and serious youth violence is everyone’s problem. We set out proposals for how the Mayor of London — working with others — can and should deliver the sort of leadership that is so urgently required on this issue today and into the future.
Recommendation 43: The Mayor, DWP, HMRC, London Councils, and others to be represented alongside the Metropolitan Police on the Enforcement Working Group, aiding with the development of an enforcement toolkit covering the wide range of offences, regulations, and rules that can be used to target high harm players and help reinforce the message that “the violence must stop”.
Recommendation 44: In the event of a gang-related death of a young person or the death of any young person as a result of a knife, gun, or other incident of serious violence, an approximation to a Serious Case Review should be undertaken and a full public response made by the local authority and other relevant agencies.
