Whilst many debate the issue of violence, people are dying. Act, do no harm…….
Many of you reading this will have seen the recent horrific footage of a man stabbing another male on a packed London train in broad daylight. Personally, I was shocked in what I witnessed from the footage shared on social media, but I wasn’t surprised. Both the size of the knife used and the number of times it was used on the victim paint a bleak picture about how, despite a large investment in violence prevention, we are currently addressing the issue of violence across England and Wales at this time.
For me two questions need answered. I will ask both of the questions shortly, however my intention in this piece is to focus only on the first question. Firstly, how did this man feel comfortable to carry such a weapon on the streets in his community, this despite there being in place laws to address both possession and use. Secondly where did the apparent lack of empathy originate that led to this man using such violence on a fellow human being. How we answer and respond to these questions is relevant to both the reduction and ultimately the prevention long term of this issue. Let’s not forget that the violence we see today will impact in our communities long into the future.
Whilst politicians, police commentators and activists’ debate what’s needed, young people, specifically young men are dying and will continue to die on our streets. Action is needed not words.
The ‘Scottish approach’ to violence prevention is often discussed in the aftermath of such stories. I was part of this approach spending the last 9 years of my policing career working within the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU). I hear commentators suggest, that was Scotland, this is London and its different. I agree we may be in different parts of the country however violence is violence wherever it occurs. I also hear people suggest that we focused a lot on long term prevention and such a ‘soft and cuddly’ approach won’t work at this time.
One of my first roles within the SVRU was to coordinate the police response to violence across all the then eight Scottish forces. We saw enforcement as necessary and as a key part of our long-term prevention strategy. Stop and search presents a form of swift and visible justice that would help us ‘contain and manage’ ongoing levels of violence. We tightened up our response to people caught in possession of knives and introduced mandatory sentences to address the issue. We shared good practice and tried new approaches learned from other parts of the world. We made use of technology to assist our efforts. We brought officers and the public with us on our journey. We engaged the media. We weren’t soft, we were smart.
What happened alongside this contain phase was collaboration that was aimed at achieving a sustainable reduction in violence. Collaboration with a range of services and people who shared our agenda of making Scotland one of the safest countries in Europe. Since the start of the SVRU the evidence speaks for itself with homicide rates and knife possession reducing and the reduction being maintained.
So, what words of wisdom do I offer my policing colleagues.
To senior leaders support and trust your officers to use their powers to search for weapons. I hear too many commentators suggesting police officers are scared to use their powers of search. They need your support. Will mistakes be made? Of Course, humans make mistakes. Will there be backlash against stop and search? Yes, some will always criticise such use of powers. Don’t simply rely on the tactic as such overuse will lead to justified criticism. Long term you will need to find a blend of enforcement and prevention work. Remember you can’t do this all by yourself.
To officers on the front line, know your powers of search. In my career, when I better understood my powers of search, when I knew had to use them, life became so much easier for me. When I became a more experienced officer, I made sure new officers learned their powers also. I was vocal in pointing out their mistakes.
Another piece of advice I want to give to front line officers may appear strange at first but hear me out. We make mistakes, we are human after all. If you see a colleague making a mistake address it. It doesn’t have to be challenging. You are doing it to support them. If a colleague speaks to you about something you have done, don’t see it as an attack. They are helping you. Even if they get it wrong thank them as it takes great courage to speak to you in this way. Our communities need the police to be using their powers of search and to be using them both properly and effectively.
When we see police officers not using their powers of search this can impact negatively on community action which is also needed to address violence. When we see communities getting involved, we will help reduce levels of violence.
Research in sociology suggests that in neighbourhoods with few resources and high levels of disorder and crime, people tend to develop a sense of mistrust and to believe that others are more likely to hurt than to help them. Greater mistrust means that the cost of helping seems higher, and so bystanders are less willing to step up and act in an emergency. This sense of apathy leads to members of the public not calling the police to share information.
“Violence is preventable not inevitable”. This was the vision of the SVRU when I was there. It remains the vision today. A clear and consistent vision is needed to address the challenge of violence. A vision that we can all get behind. A vision that we believe in. I believed in the SVRU vision. I still believe in it. We will not address violence if all we do is debate what works and what doesn’t. Action is needed now.
At the start I posed a second question. Where did the lack of empathy come from. Long term prevention requires a multitude of different approaches. Some may come across as soft but as I say there is nothing soft about violence prevention. When you get it right it’s more about being smart not soft.
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