Street Crime Initiative
Background Information
The Street Crime Initiative (SCI) ran between 2002 and 2005.
It focussed on the 10 police force areas which accounted for 83% of all robberies nationally.
The good practice document ‘Problem Solving Street Crime - practical lessons from the Street Crime Initiative ' was developed from the experience of the SCI, and disseminated to all police forces in 2005.
The SCI achieved a 27% reduction in robbery (combined figure of personal and commercial robbery).
Following the SCI robbery began to rise significantly in 2005/06.
The Prime Ministers Delivery Unit expressed concern at this trend and asked the Home Office to develop action to ensure that the gains made during the SCI were not lost.
The Home Office action plan (published June 2006) was developed to target hotspot CDRPs who accounted for the majority of Robbery figure.
This placed a new emphasis on multi-agency working, using problem solving skills to ensure long term sustainable reductions.
History of the Street Crime Initiative (SCI)
The Street Crime Initiative was launched on 17th March 2002 in response to rapid and accelerating rises in robbery across England and Wales. Robbery rose by 13% in 2000-01 and by a further 28% in 2001-02 when it reached its peak.
The SCI covered the ten police force areas which together accounted for 83% of recorded robbery in 2001/02. These areas were: the Metropolitan Police, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Merseyside, Avon and Somerset, Nottinghamshire, Thames Valley, Lancashire, and South Yorkshire.
The 10 SCI forces plus the British Transport Police received additional funding for operations against street crime. About £25 million was allocated to the forces for each of the three years of the Initiative, with a residual allocation of £6.5 million for 2005-06 to embed good practice and ensure that the lessons of the SCI were not lost.
The lessons learnt from the initiative were captured in a pack of information, published in 2004. Through the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Police Standards Unit, this good practice has been spread to all forces in England and Wales and has been widely seen as comprehensive and valuable.
Statistics and key facts
Comparing 2004-05 (the last year of the SCI) with 2001-02 (the peak year before the start of the SCI) robbery levels fell by 32% in the 10 SCI forces, with 32,527 fewer robberies in 2004-05 than in 2001-02.
This achievement is especially marked given that there are 62 million mobile phones in circulation now, compared to 16 million in 2000, and mobile phones are stolen in up to half of all robberies. There are 15 million more mobile phones in circulation today than there were at the start of 2002.
A published report by the London School of Economics indicated that the initiative has been cost effective, as the economic and social cost of the robberies prevented in the first two years of the initiative is estimated to have exceeded the costs of the initiative in these two years by a large margin.
Robbery, as reported by the BCS and the BCS comparator for high crime areas, counts towards PSA 1. However, because the volume is low, it only accounts for 2% of the overall crime target.
Main drivers of robbery and responses
The Street Crime Initiative identified a number of drivers for robbery and therefore generated guidance on a large menu of responses which could be used in combination to tackle the problem, rather than a single response. The issue faced by those developing a strategy to tackle robbery is around the choice of tactics to be deployed, with these needing to be tailored to the particular local problem.
The main drivers of robbery/street crime were identified through research with individual offenders. The following characteristics were highlighted:
Younger offenders aged between 14 and 21 robbing to alleviate boredom, to support their desire for fashionable clothing and to gain street ‘cred'. They tended to look for victims considered easy to rob or likely to be in possession of desirable goods.
Older offenders in their twenties robbing to support their addiction to Class A drugs. They were attracted by property that was clearly on display, valuable and easy to steal. They showed little awareness of victim characteristics or their surroundings, committing offences in full view of CCTV and other witnesses. Their behaviour was opportunistic, even chaotic, and resulted from desperation for drugs. Many felt that street crime was a low-status, unacceptable, embarrassing, desperate act that was ‘out of character‘ or they were ashamed of. They preferred to avoid confrontation with victims, preferring bag snatches.
Younger victims were at greater risk of street crime, with young males being at much higher than young women.
However, the strongest driver was the possession of mobile phones. A mobile phone was taken in up to a half of all robberies, and in some areas, a mobile phone was the only item that is stolen. Tackling mobile phone theft was therefore a central part of the SCI. This was taken forward by working in partnership with the police and mobile phone industry to address a number of measures, both technical and procedural. Key measures included:
A national database of blacklisted phones. Network operators have established a database of stolen and lost mobile phones, so they can be blocked across all networks in the UK.
Legislation on re-programming. The Mobile Telephones (Re-programming) Act 2002 new criminal offences of changing the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of a mobile phone. New measures in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill are designed to plug legislative gaps.
Advertising campaign. The mobile phone industry-led ‘Immobilise ' campaign, promoting the message that "Stolen Phones Don't Work Anymore".
National Police Unit. Initially developed by the SCI. We have continued to part fund the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU) to co-ordinate police activity against mobile phones nationally. Funding for the Unit was £1.5m in 2005/06; £1.35 2006/07; £1m in 2007/08 and £500K in 2008/9.
National Mobile Phone Register. Where members of the public can register their phone, and which allows officers to check instantaneously whether a phone is stolen and in the hands of the rightful owner.
Although the Initiative has now finished, the practical lessons and advice from it are still relevant today. The short guide Tackling Robbery: Practical Lessons From The Street Crime Initiative is available and summarises the key lessons for local partnerships.
Last update: Tuesday, February 24, 2009