Appendix 1 Police and Crime Committee Tackling the rise of violent crime in London Background As the Committee knows from its monitoring, for many months now serious violence in London has continued to rise. Over the first quarter of 2018 there were 45 murders, compared with 23 in the same period of the previous year.1 To date in 2018, 62 murders have been recorded by the Met. Of these, 39 were knife-enabled and 10 firearms-enabled.2 Against a backdrop of rising weapon offences elsewhere in England and Wales,3 the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) recently described the levels of knife crime in London as a “crisis”.4 Half of all victims of knife crime, including knife crime with injury, are under 25.5 Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt told members at a recent meeting that the Met is seeing a rise in victims aged 11 to 17.6 Young BAME men make up a high proportion of victims, and this proportion increases when looking at gang related knife crime. Offenders are of a similar age, with nearly 40 per cent of knife possession suspects identified as black males under 25.7 Causes of knife crime and serious violence There are likely to be many factors behind the rise in serious violence, including organised criminal activity, particularly drug dealing, turf wars or so-called postcode rivalries, or personal slights that get amplified on social media. Some have cited the rise in violent crime to cuts to youth services,8 falling police officer numbers,9 lack of community confidence in the police,10 and the fall in sanction detection rates for knife crime as potential explanations.11 Studies have shown that people who experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)—including living in a home where domestic violence takes place—are at increased risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violent crime later in life.12 Domestic violence itself accounts for around 20 per cent of murders in London each year.13 The Assembly has a separate campaign for a domestic violence risk register.14 The Committee has previously noted that a key driver of knife crime among young people is the belief that they need to be prepared to defend themselves. This belief could be fuelled by incidents that occur in the community which cause a negative perception of safety, or through the influence of social media. The Committee concluded in its report, ‘Serious Youth Violence’, that “if 1 Metropolitan Police, Crime Data dashboard, accessed 3 May 2018 2 One victim was shot and stabbed, so counts double. 3 ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending December 2017, 26 April 2018 4 AC Martin Hewitt, Meeting of the Police and Crime Committee, 11 April 2018; and Meeting of the Police and Crime Committee, 21 February 2018 5 MOPAC, Justice Matters knife crime presentation, March 2018 6 Meeting of the Police and Crime Committee, 11 April 2018 7 MOPAC, Justice Matters knife crime presentation, March 2018 8 BBC, Have youth service cuts led to more crime? 7 April 2018 9 Mayor of London, Mayor's Budget confirms additional £110m this year for Met Police, 22 February 2018 10 The Guardian, Stop and search harms fight against knife crime, Met officer says, 13 March 2018 11 MOPAC, Justice Matters knife crime presentation, March 2018 12 Department of Health Protecting People promoting health: a public health approach to violence prevention for England, October 2012 13 Conversation with the Met, 3 May 2018 14 London Assembly, Time to introduce a domestic abuser register, says Assembly, 7 September 2017 Police and Crime Committee Tackling the rise of violent crime in London a serious incident occurs, there needs to be a concerted effort by the police and other agencies to reassure young people that they are safe.”15 The Commissioner has recently criticised the role of social media in promoting violence. She has said that she believes "there's definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to 'fight' very quickly" and that gangs who post on social media or share videos provoking rivals can glamorise violence.16 Drill music—a type of rap music originating from America—has also been accused of promoting violence. Others have suggested that drugs and gang involvement are the driving factor. The Government’s recently published Serious Violence Strategy highlights the changing drugs market—in particular the rise in dealing of crack cocaine—as a driver, coupled with ‘county lines’ whereby gangs infiltrate suburban areas for the purposes of dealing. The strategy notes that the geography of violence is changing, and suggests that “drug-selling gangs from the major urban areas, like London, Birmingham and Liverpool—possibly driven by excess supply—have sought to exploit markets in other towns and areas”,17 and this is leading to clashes as outsiders move into new areas to deal their drugs. Tackling violence – enforcement Tackling weapon based crime has been set as a priority for every borough, meaning that front line officers are expected to focus on reducing the use of weapons in their area. Each borough has also developed its own knife crime action plan.18 In addition to this, the Met carries out a range of specific operational activity focused on tackling serious violence. This includes, for example, Operation Sceptre, which involves weapon sweeps, test purchases (including online) and stop and search, as well as delivering educational packages to London schools; and “targeted, intelligence-led stop and search”. Following the increase in homicides so far this year, Section 60 Stop and Search powers are being used, with “approximately half a dozen” in force on any one day. AC Martin Hewitt told members at an urgent meeting on 11 April that “in the past two weeks 1,200 stop and searches have been carried out”, of which 18 per cent were for weapons.19 In response to the level of homicide this year, the Met has set up a violent crime taskforce. The taskforce—funded through an additional £15 million provided by the Mayor - will include 158 experienced officers, who will use local knowledge and intelligence to disrupt offending activity.20 As of 11th April 2018, there were 50 officers in the taskforce, and another 50 expected to join by the end of May.21 The substantive posts of these officers will be backfilled. A further 88 officers (double at weekends), split into four units, will patrol the streets with a dedicated focus on serious violence. These units will be staffed through cancellation of rest days and overtime.22 At the 15 Police and Crime Committee, Serious Youth Violence, September 2016 16 BBC News, Met Police chief: Social media leads children to violence, 31 March 2018 17 HM Government, Serious Violence Strategy, April 2018 18 The committee has requested copies of each borough strategy. 19 Meeting of the Police and Crime Committee, 11 April 2018 20 Met Briefing, Serious Violence Strategy 21 Meeting of the Police and Crime Committee, 11 April 2018 22 Met Briefing, Serious Violence Strategy Police and Crime Committee Tackling the rise of violent crime in London committee’s meeting on 11 April during a discussion about resources, the Mayor highlighted the impact on officers of having rest days cancelled, suggesting that “the police are knackered”.23 Preventing violence – addressing the causes There may be important lessons from other areas—both in the UK and internationally—where approaches have succeeded in reducing violent crime. Increasingly a greater focus is being placed on a ‘public health approach’ to knife crime and violence, which “seeks to improve the health and safety of all individuals by addressing underlying risk factors that increase the likelihood that an individual will become a victim or a perpetrator of violence.”24 This is a long-term strategy for dealing with serious violence within a community. At the Assembly’s policing plenary in 2017, the Met Commissioner responded that the Met and MOPAC were “all committed to the notion that prevention is better than enforcement which is, after all, the public health approach.”25 A public health approach has been used in Scotland. In 2005 a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) was created to address all violent behaviour, particularly knife crime and weapon carrying, among young men in and around Glasgow. In 2006 the unit’s remit was extended nationwide, funded by the Scottish Government, to look at violence in all its forms. The VRU approach is one of prevention and enforcement: it works with agencies from health, education and social services with the aim of creating long-term attitudinal change, but it also focused on enforcement, and seeks to contain and/or manage people who carry weapons or take part in violence. There is little evaluation readily available on the VRU. However, offence data shows that homicides have reduced since 2007-08: but have levelled off to an average of 61 cases a year since 2012-13.26 Levels of recorded violent crime entered a downward trend in 2002-03, but have increased over the last two years.27 Will Linden, Acting Director of the VRU told the Police Foundation Annual conference in 2017 that progress had slowed, but was still being made and “essentially what we have done is we’ve tackled the low hanging fruit”.28 Role of the Mayor and the GLA The Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan focuses predominantly on serious violence in the context of young people, making commitments to protect and safeguard young Londoners; tackle knife crime and other violence by and against young people; address the problem of gang violence; prevent young people from getting involved in crime; and address reoffending.