The secret to reducing crime

I was fortunate to spend an hour with the elected Mayor of North Tyneside, Linda Arkley today.  She is a remarkable woman and an outstanding leader.  Like many people faced with trying to reduce crime and improving living standards for local residents she acknowledges that it is not just her problem.  So many agencies plough their own furrow, work with a silo mentality and fail to communicate with other agencies, let alone share intelligence.  The secret to reducing crime is to firstly acknowledge that crime is everybodies problem, not just the police or the local authorities?    Multi agency partnerships are the way forward and I've seen some fine examples in many places including the North East of England.  One fine example is in Eire, the Criminal Asset Bureau, known as the CAB and feared by Irish criminals.  It's aim is to disrupt serious and organised crime groups and seize assets from them.  They were so successful that in a few short years Irish criminals were packing their bags and moving off shore to places like the Costa Blanca.  The secret to their success was partnership working.  Each team was made up of a police officer, welfare worker, tax officer, customs officer etc.  They worked in small teams and were given specific criminals to target by their strategic command and they were as I say incredibly successful.  I would like to see similar CAB examples here in the North East.

Partnership working continues to bear fruit in the North East especially in North Tyneside through such schemes as the 'Widening horizons through sport' which has touched 70,000 children.  Such schemes are to be encouraged.  We must find ways of diverting children away from a life of drugs and crime into healthy positive life experiences.   So hats off to North Tyneside Council and their splendid leadership.  Their reward is knowing that North Tyneside remains the safest metropolitan borough in England, for the third year in a row!