Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears, addressed the summit which included representatives from every London borough, the Met Police, Greater London Assembly and other crime reduction partners.
The plans include action to target the 1000 most prolific offenders in London, schemes to test and treat people with drug problems arrested by the police and new measures to target drink-related violence.
Each borough has a new community safety strategy, developed through community consultation and research into local crime and drugs issues. Key partners, including the police and local authorities, have come together to establish joint priorities and take action to tackle crime and drugs misuse.
The initiatives to tackle crime and disorder have overarching issues common to all 33 boroughs, which were discussed in detail at the conference. These are:
- Prolific Offenders
- Drug Intervention programmes
- Violent crime
- Anti Social behaviour
- Young people and drugs
Work is already underway across London on these key themes and includes:
- Detailed analysis of crime types and hot spots and co-ordinating action to tackle problems such as rises in violence, burglary, vehicle crime or antisocial behaviour.
- ‘Drug Intervention Programmes’ which have introduced comprehensive drug testing and treatment regimes in police cells across 21 boroughs.
- Work to tackle the ‘late night economy’ and associated violence.
- Identifying the most damaging and prolific offenders in each borough and targeting them for inter-agency intervention to tackle the underlying issues.
Speaking at the Conference Hazel Blears said:
"Overall crime has fallen across London for ten years and the latest crime figures show a continued downward trend with the region achieving a six per cent reduction since 2002. But there is still a great deal to do.
"Every London borough has put in a huge amount of work to identify their crime and drug issues locally and are publishing comprehensive strategic plans to tackle them over the next three years. I am delighted that, for the first time, drugs have been included in these strategies - the link between drug misuse and crime is clear. By giving drug-misusing offenders help through treatment and support, communities suffer less crime and the taxpayer saves money as criminal justice costs are reduced.”
GOL Regional Director Liz Meek added:
“Today we are celebrating the work of borough crime and drug partnerships, particularly the audits and strategies they have just completed. Also we want to celebrate the fact that we now have an overarching crime reduction target for London of 20%, to which all agencies are contributing. I am confident that if we work in partnership, we will achieve our targets. I am delighted to have contributed personally by chairing the Resettlement and Drug Intervention Programme Boards, which are both contributing significantly to crime and drug reduction across London through a partnership approach.”
Image: Liz Meek (GOL Regional Director), Hazel Blears (Minister of State for Policing, Security and Community Safety), Tim Godwin (Assistant Commissioner to the Metropolitan Police), Lee Jasper (senior adviser to the Mayor/Policy Director : Equalities and Policing) at the CDRP Summit.
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