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Reducing violent crime
Together with the Met Police and specialists in health, youth services and local government, City Hall has announced plans to establish a new Violence Reduction Unit. It aims to tackle the causes of violent crime, such as poverty, mental ill-health and lack of opportunities. Alongside this, the Violent Crime Taskforce will continue its work to take knives and other weapons off the streets.
What do you think of the measures above? Do you think that it is important to bring together different services and involve communities when designing solutions to tackle violent crime? What can Londoners, families and communities do to help prevent violence?
Share your thoughts in the discussion below. More about the VRU.
169 Comments
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Problem is crime grows as it’s allowed to. Police now ignore ‘minor’ drug offences, and weren’t bothered when I reported these, so crime will grow like a cancer.
police need to crack down on minor stuff to stop th8ngs developing.
YES, AND WHEN ARE THE POLICE GOING TO DO THE JOB FOR WHICH THERE HIGHLY REWARED FOR AND ACCUTALLY PREVENT CRIME. I SIRLEY DONT KNOW, BECAUSE IF THIS IS SO CALLED MODERN POLICE, IM A DUCTHMAD, ALL I SEE IS CRIME IS UP AMD POLICE DO LESS & Less. DPJ777.
Nobody has mentioned internet policing. We need police to do more to find and follow up drug-sellers advertising on the internet, wannabe gangsters making plans on social media, etc.
I would like to ask the Mayor the following questions about this:
1. How would this initiative be funded?
2. How many "dedicated" police personnel would you have available for this initiative at all times?
3. What would be their actual mandate (rules of engagement)?
I may be wrong but a lot of violent crime which relates to murder seems to arise from a gang culture. To be fair this is usually unpredictable as to who when and where so I think any task force needs to focus on the gaining of intelligence as an attempt to prevent it happening rather than dealing with the aftermath. Part is the need to try to undertake stop and search for weapons although of course parental responsibility is also critical.Recruitment needs to be from experienced officers with local knowledge and so a trust develops at local level to try to scale down what seems to be a rising level of the murder of so many young people. Without community support no task force will be able to manage the challenges which it will face.Nor should expectations be pitched too high so that all that follows is inevitable disappointment as lasting change is slow to be delivered.
We would love to see the police:
1. To be active in the community; going on patrols around the streets.
2. Instead of chasing rough sleepers, stop crimes.
They chase rough sleepers! The police I see today could not chance a man on crutches up hill.
New packaging for formerly failed ideas. Talking shops equal no action only papers. Get out there and nick'em.
Think attention needs to be given to the existing police teams working together internally and with local communities.
When considering the significant decline in effective Neighbourhood Policing I believe the starting point is to address this before adding another layer which will just cause greater ambiguity on what each police team are actually responsible for.
We need more Police and tougher sentancing. Local communities need Police Stations reopened. The Police need more money not less in general. How can you expect Local Communities to do more when there aren't enough Police to help us and protect us now and not enough money being spent on local Policing. How will the Police find time to meet with local communities when there aren't enough of them to deal with basic crime. My area is becoming out of control and certain parts are no go areas at night or even in the day - I live on the outskirts of London and we used to have lower crime rates than central London but not anymore.
Despite all the negative comments on this topic, we are being looked after. For me the issue is we do not see it. A Bobby on the beat would be a good start. Nothing like seeing a poiceman walking about for one to realise that they are there, doing the best they can under circumstances that sometimes beggar belief. As has been said already, we really need more "Bobbys" .now.
The negative comments come from people who are genuinely worried about the vast increase in crimes in London and want it to stop.
Of course, there is something very reassuring when we spot police persons parading down the road, it is nowdays a suprising experience, however, we have to acknowlege and address that there are issues in our society that had managed to make people feel it is OK and somehow trendy to behave in a barbaric way.
Violent crime in London is rising. That's the problem.
We did without the GLC 1986 - 2000 before deciding to have a mayor and all the other add-ons that involved e.g. buildings, assembly members etc. We could probably have a bigger police force without meddling from a mayor - any mayor of any big city in the UK. Why do we need police commissioners too who often have no experience in policing? How about taking on what used to be the standard Bobby - someone who wanted to do good for the community who certainly didn't have to be a graduate. Both my father, brother and cousin would have not have been eligible but served loyally for 30 years each.
The Public can help by close collaboration with the Police in the form of providing "eyes and ears" information and early notification in the local community. The "OWL" initiative has produced good results in this respect in the Southfield and adjacent Wards.
(PS Note to Talk London: I had problems on page 11 of the Survey where certain "buttons" became insensitive to the clicks of my mouse)
What we need is more police and more funding for them. This then needs to be backed up with proper sentencing at court as the majority of criminals know that they are unlikely to get caught and a decent sentence. Police are massively under staffed and nothing will work until we have more police. This is just another political knee jerk by the mayor to try and save face
Thanks everyone for sharing your views. We’re sharing them with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC).
A few of you have mentioned you’d like to see more police enforcement. City Hall is investing an extra £138 million in the Met to keep police numbers as high as possible. At the same time, the new Violence Reduction Unit will tackle the causes of crime, by involving health services, local government and youth services. This approach has been successful in Glasgow, and City Hall has scaled it to meet London’s challenges. It’s not a substitute for the investment in public services, but a long-term vision to tackle the causes of violent crime.
Can you think of other organisations the Violence Reduction unit could work with? What do you think of prevention as a measure to reduce violent crime?
Talk London
You assert that the Violence Reduction Unit approach is a model proven elsewhere. Credibility would be enhanced by telling us now your plan assumptions and what metric targets will be measured to demonstrate the performance of this strategy over time. Then, we might believe subsequent reporting against the predicted results. Usually, such initiatives are accompanied by woolly statements about promised improvements followed by periodic assertions of success embellished with random "indicators" of that success that sound impressive until analysed carefully.
Hope Talk London and the Mayor are hearing the comments on here loud and clear. No - almost without exception - we dont support more fluffy and nice. We want police on the streets enforcing the current law, action against offenders and end to "untouchbles". Alot of that is not about money, its about political will.
Glad to hear this. I'm eagerly awaiting the return of the bobby/ies on the beat.
Just another bit of publicity to make the Mayor look as though he is doing something. In fact he has achieved little during his tenure, except an undercurrent to strangle London. Bad transport, fewer police, no housing policy, it goes on and on. Root causes have to be addressed with all the problems of our capital and not just patching.
Mr Khan has messed up spent all our money on cycle highways and cross rail so we can travel quicker less people are using these unfit for purpose services so he’s not recouping a fraction of the cost hence slashing services that help the public , we have to pay without a choice this huge cost of gla has to be abolished that will give millions back to public services
It was Boris Johnson who committed London to spending millions on cycle schemes! Do I get the feeling from these biased comments that you are all Tories, UKIP, etc?
What another waste of taxpayers money. What are they going to do about dealing with poverty - give them more money, ill health - open mental health units which were all closed and now are supermarkets, lack of opportunity - get the people jobs. How about you invest the money in putting police officer back on the streets to deter crime and let the courts deal with the poverty, ill health and lack of opportunity. If there were more police on the streets there would be less OPPORTUNITIES to commit crimes. You wouldn’t need your 1984 doublespeak VIOLENCE REDUCTION UNIT or your VIOLENT CRIME TASKFORCE. My father was a policeman walking a beat on an estate, he knew most of the trouble makers by name and they knew him. He didn’t stop all the crime on the estate but he help reduce it just by being there. That is what we need, no specialist TASKFORCE, plain and simple more bodies on the streets with real powers and a court of law that backs up the policing in the streets.
I agree. Bobbies on the beat help to reduce crime just by being there.
I know an elderly who always tells the story of the time she had her handbag stolen. Luckily, just by chance, two police officers were walking close by. They arrested the thief and returned the handbag. The outcome would have been very different if it weren't for the two bobbies on the beat.
Behaviour on the bus has got much worse since the Community Support Officers stopped patrolling after school.
Police patrols could pay for themselves by issuing on-the-spot fines for littering, cycling through red lights, cycling on the pavement and parking motor scooters on the pavement. All of these things are getting more prevalent.
Much violent crime is fuelled by drugs. Until we have a zero tolerance policy on drugs, tougher related sentences and police who have powers and don't see their limited resources result in slaps on the wrist then it will carry on. I just came back from San Francisco where the drug laws are so lenient they let people jack up in front of police in Market Street (equivalent of our Oxford Street) and it was scary. Our liberal minded politicians will probably go down same path. Tackle drugs and the knock on effect will be a reduction in all crime.
100% agree! Please don't legalise cannabis, Home Secretary!
The Mayor doesn't make drug policy (yet - scary thought!), but he could increase funding for drug operations, to better tackle the problem. Increasing policing in the vicinity of big London prisons would be a good place to start.
Obviously working together must be better than working separetly, it seems to me that part of the problem is departmentalising, where one department doesn't know what the others are doing. Individuals caught in the system may be treated differently depending on which department they encounter. It is important that everyone understands the whole situation of the individual.
Causes of crime such as "such as poverty, mental ill-health and lack of opportunities" - what a lot of claptrap. This si about lawlessness, organsied crime and greed.Its fuelled by drug dealing, immigration to take advantage of our soft on crime culture. You can see them in their ugly cars, threatening presence and "you cant touch me because I will play the race card" style. Everyone in this coutnry gets free edutciton to 18, free healthcare and the cahnce to succeed. If certain types decide not to take it because they aree "too cool for school" then thats up to them - dont come round with the bleeding hearts later excusing the bad choices they have made.
Agree in 100% to the original comment.
Actually, studies in the last 18 years have shown that criminality is unrelated to immigration rate. This is not heresay or “my impression is...”, these are cold hard numbers. What can be shown is that criminality has risen in line with the reduction of police funding. So the problem isn’t the immigrants, the problem is criminally incompetent government.
It would help if the Mayor were to get behind our Prime Minister as she negotiates our future outside of the EU. As long as we fiddle about with second referendum debates, free movement is allowing criminals from all over the EU to pour into our country, with minimal checks.
There's more money in failure, jobs for judges, lawyers, police etc, the powers are not really serious about fixing it. I read out loud at 38 and my aggression disappeared. (reading out loud was banned or severely reduced in school) this happened during the video age. Millions of parents were dumbed down but it was hushed up so nobody knew. Children watch too much tv, on computer games, they don't practice talking enough and the better you are at talking the easier it is to learn to read. Bad behaviour in school is a job for learning support assistant. Primary school thinks discipline is shouting, screaming, humiliating and belittling, it's not it's bullying. You could say they taught bullying. I helped in a primary school for two years so I've witnessed it. When I played, laughed, smiled, joked and built up the relationship i found my frown was more effective. I had the joy in bucket loads. If only I had known all this when I was a parent.
i want to say sorry to my boys for I was a bad parent.......regards George
Better training for school staff on ADHD would help to engage children who find school hard, before they drop out.
Londoners, families and communities pay taxes to City Hall on the basis that, in return, they will receive a police service. If the Mayor has the funding to set up a new taskforce to prevent violent crime, why does he need to take money away from the police in the first place? Just give the police the funding they need to do their job. That's the simplest and most effective way to reduce violent crime.
Considering the Mayor grew up on a council estate in South London, I'm surprised he gives so little priority to funding day-to-day policing. What does he expect the doctor to do?
"Hello doctor. I'm a violent criminal."
"So sorry to hear that. Here's a prescription for going straight."
Welcome to law and order under Sadiq Khan!
Really odd.
The Mayor of London asks how to make London safer for Londoners and visitors and he closes police stations, e.g. Barnet ( to sell to build yet more flats strangling our infrastructure?).
Sorry, just like NHS we need more staff not high technology. If we have to pay 1% extra tax so be it. Invest in people not MONEY!
I support the idea but a would guess that it needs a few £Billion. Will it get it?
1. Enforce a proper full stop and search programme. 2. Make sure that on conviction magistrates hand down maximum sentences including imprisonment for offenders for as long as possible.3. Zero tolerance of even the smallest offence such as dropping litter.
the biggest problem is that criminal and violent people think that they can get away with their offences. We need enough police to ensure that criminals consider they will get caught. The punishment is not really that relevant.
Exactly.
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