This is the third of a new series of bite-size videos looking at the presentations of the 2020 Society of Evidence Based Policing (SEBP) Virtual Conference. Susanne Knabe-Nicol, otherwise known as ‘The Police Science Dr’, summarises a presentation by Professor Tom Kirchmaier’s talk on Gangs, Drugs and Knife Crime in London, still a very current topic. His conference talk presented what may be behind changes in knife crimes, drug availability and competition between gangs, amongst other issues. Prof Kirchmaier is Director of Policing and Crime at the London School of Economics.
This bite-size summary is a great way to understand the main points of Prof Kirchmaier’s presentation but you can also view the original presentation in full here on the SEBP YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0yXmv6fMrk
Therefore, if gentrification has not significantly altered those neighbourhoods where lone parent HHs, higher unemployment, social housing, higher educational exclusions are associated with higher crime over multiple decades, how is it then the combination of Gov’t, LAs, Police and VRUs have not been able to systematically reduce / eliminate Gangs and County Lines (CL)?
The CL business model enabler must therefore be technology (both Snapchat and WhatsApp are double-end encrypted, for instance),meaning more product can get more directly from supplier (dealer) to end-user with less chance of detection. Can behavioural economics be used to adapt nudge theory so that more capable guardians (active bystanders) submit more suspicious neighbourhood activity intel to the Police and plain-clothed cops (covert units) infiltrate (delivery couriers) and tackle, reducing the cost of crime in the longer-term?