Council and democracy

Youth crime initiative aims to make Croydon 'safe for all'

A joint operation to tackle youth violence begins in Croydon on 13 October.

It represents an intensification of work already being carried out by the police, Croydon Council and other partners with extra resources allocated to increase pressure on young people intent on violence.
 
As part of the Metropolitan Police Service's anti-knife crime initiative, police have already been running high-visibility patrols and carrying out frequent searches at locations around the borough. They have also been working with the council on diversionary activities for young people. However, Croydon's Operation Safe for All will involve an escalation of existing measures, greater co-ordination of uniformed resources as well as several new approaches. 

Chief Supt Mark Gore, Croydon Police Borough Commander, said a new response is needed. "Although overall crime is going down in the borough, three recent murders by stabbing in as many months and an increase in knife-enabled crime shows that there is clearly a number of young people who are not getting the message. Therefore, we intend deploying extra police officers on our streets with extensive search operations at key points in the town centre and specific venues. There will also be street outreach work aimed at preventing crime.
 
"One of the new tactics we are bringing in is called Staysafe. This will see young people being removed from the street and taken straight home. The arrangement will trigger a visit from a council social worker.
 
"Our intention is to support those young people who want to move out of a gang if they find themselves unhappy with what is happening around them. We are also ready to advise any parent or carer who believes their young person is in a gang and caught up in criminal activity. I hope the whole community - businesses, families, schools and colleges - join us in making this operation a success."
 
Council resources, including neighbourhood enforcement officers and mobile response units, will be concentrated to provide visible support to the police tactics.

And in a proactive move to stop the problem of youth crime before it has a chance to take root, substantial effort is going into early intervention and diversion schemes to steer youths onto the straight and narrow before they get sucked into gang violence.

Key steps will include:

• launch of a Turnaround Centre, based on the successful format of the Family Justice Centre, where multi-agency issues and concerns relating to young people at risk of offending can be addressed in a single place 
• introducing a helpline as a place of contact for young people and parents regarding gang issues
• greater use of education welfare officers and police operations to reduce truancy
• development of more youth activities, especially for Friday and Saturday nights, including a mobile youth centre
• extra training for teachers, college tutors and voluntary workers on how to identify and support those most vulnerable to gang influence, youth violence and victimisation
• deploying mobile CCTV in locations where recording may be useful for securing evidence as well as deterring the assembly of young people.

Where young people do commit crimes and are given community service, the council will be lobbying to ensure that more of that community service takes place visibly on Friday and Saturday evening, cutting into the offenders' own leisure time and ensuring they are not free to cause further trouble.

In addition, the council will toughen its licensing response procedures to act more quickly when conditions are breached, clamping down on retailers who unlawfully sell weapons and making greater use of injunctions, ASBOs and dispersal orders to control public order situations. The council is also initiating talks with Transport for London about confiscating free travel passes from disruptive young people.

The overall aim of Operation Safe for All is to restore the town's rating as a safe and inviting place for those who work, live, shop and socialise in the area in line with its actual position as the ninth safest borough in London.
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Said cabinet member for safety and cohesion, Councillor Steve O'Connell: "Tackling youth violence and knife crime is the top corporate priority for the council. This joint operation has been carefully put together to remedy the immediate problem and put into place long-term measures that prevent young people from getting involved in criminality. This means identifying possible miscreants as young as ten and working with their families to focus on positive outlets rather than misbehaving. Parents will be receiving a knock on the door telling them what their children have been up to and seeking their support."

The need to raise the stakes in tackling violent youth crime in Croydon has won support from the Labour group on the council. Expressing his backing for the taskforce action plan, shadow cabinet member Stuart Collins said: "The harmful effect of knife crime and youth violence, for victims and for the town's reputation, makes it essential that the urgent steps being proposed are backed across the council. The tendency towards violent crime, and in particular gang-related crime with knives and other weapons, means it must remain top of Croydon's community safety agenda, both in tackling the issue itself and allaying the fears of local people. We have agreed to working together on a cross-party basis to support the steps taken by the council and police to tackle this recent, worrying increase in knife crime."

In addition, the approach has been welcomed by Croydon Business on behalf of employers, retailers and responsible operators within the bustling night-time economy. Chief executive Brian Stapleton said: "Croydon's economy is suffering from the perception of crime and concerns about safety. A loss of business confidence inhibits growth and reduces the number of visitors and investors. A small number of high-profile crimes are seen as the tip of the iceberg rather than an isolated incident so even though Croydon's overall crime rate means it's the ninth safest borough out of 32 in London, in terms of public perception it's likely to be much worse. Ironically, the impact on business confidence risks reducing employment opportunities for young people who we want to divert from criminal behaviour. This plan should make a real difference in preventing and deterring violent behaviour.