Deputy Mayor responds to new report to tackle violent crime

The Deputy Mayor responds to a new report which includes 350 people in Greater Manchester sharing their experiences and solutions on violence affecting young people.

Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice, Bev Hughes, said: “I’d like to thank all those who have helped to develop this research, which gives us vital community insight into the very challenging and complex issue of serious violence and provides some ideas about how we might begin to tackle the issue in Greater Manchester.

“Working with Greater Manchester Police and all our partners we are doing some important work to try and tackle serious violence and we recently held our first Violence Reduction Governance Board which will oversee this work.

“Earlier this year, we launched the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) which is a team consisting of experts in education, youth justice, public health, police and criminal justice, the voluntary community social enterprise sector, victim services and a broader network of organisations and stakeholders. These experts have come together, working closely with academics, health professionals and community leaders, to provide rich insight into the problem of violence in our city-region and explore the best ways of effectively tackling the issue.

“We are now building an action plan in response to all the insight and research we have. But change won’t happen overnight – there will be things we can and will do in the short-term, but our approach will be a long-term one. One that involves communities and professionals working together with us to tackle the underlying causes of violent crime and change social norms over time.”

Article Published: 05/12/2019 10:39 AM