Cllr Paterson says Medway’s violent crime like ex ‘murder capital of Europe’ Glasgow
A local councillor has said that Medway may find the answer to violent crime rates by adopting the public health approach of ex-“murder capital of Europe” Glasgow.
Councillor Alex Paterson, Labour member for Rochester West, tweeted on October 14 that there was “food for thought” for Medway on the treatment of violent crime as a public health issue.
In Glasgow, the police unit formed in 2005 to reduce violence worked closely with NHS staff, the education sector and social workers. Over a ten year period, this attempt to treat the causes of violence more than halved the homicide rate.
Cllr Paterson advocated that Medway learn lessons from his home city Glasgow in treating crime like a disease. He said: “We need big city solutions instead of small-town solutions.”
He pointed to drug-related crime in the area as a possible cause to be investigated. He said it would be beneficial to have the number of known drug users by ward but noted these are not recorded.
Glasgow’s public health approach tackled violent crime with the implementation of “navigators” in its accident and emergency departments, who support victims of violent crimes.
These “navigators” diffuse plans made by gang members to get revenge and work through the issue of gang members fearing retribution for informing police about incidents, commonly known as “grassing”. They also help those with alcohol or drug related problems to find work or to receive therapy.
Cllr Paterson said that a version of this support could be beneficial in Medway. He maintained that victims of violence are rarely honest with emergency staff and injuries resulting from violent crime are not recorded as such.
“The scale of the problem is masked by reporting codes,” Cllr Paterson said. “There is not that level of training among members of staff to identify knife wounds.”
He added that training for medical professionals could be useful for Medway: “It is about making use of the expertise of doctors. That’s the first step.”
Youth crime campaigner Reverend Nathan Ward, of St Margaret’s Church in Rainham said Cllr Paterson’s call for a similar approach in Medway was “rubbish”. Rev Ward, who has secured a community austerity fund to tackle violent crime in the area amounting to £29,600, said: “I wholeheartedly reject the big city approach. What Medway needs is a Medway solution.”
While Rev Ward agrees that a public health approach could be beneficial and that the drug trade may contribute to levels of violent crime, he highlighted that the issue is due to the local student population’s demand for drugs.
He said: “What we do know is there is a direct link between drug dealing and student populations.”
Rev Ward claimed there were 19 “county lines” — organised crime networks using children to transport drugs, usually between London and the surrounding counties — operating in Medway in August of this year. After the return of the student population in October, the number of working county lines was reported to have the potential to double, according to Rev Ward.
He reiterated that Medway must focus on the business side of crime and stopping “local kids [from] getting exploited.”
Cllr Paterson said that Medway would benefit in its battle against an “unprecedented” amount of crime by following Glasgow’s public health model. “There are so many parallels between Glasgow and Medway,” he said, comparing the respective areas’ shared experiences with losing their industries and the hardship that followed.
In the month that Cllr Paterson tweeted his advice for Medway, figures by Police UK show that Medway’s Gillingham South ward had the highest number of violent crimes. There were 497 violent crimes, making up 48.3 per cent of crimes in the ward — the highest percentage of crimes classified as violent in the Medway area. This was a 16.9 per cent increase on the same month in 2017.
Figures from other wards show that violent crimes make up a similarly high percentage of the crimes. In Gillingham North, 45.7 per cent of reported crimes in October 2018 were classified as violent crimes. In the same period, in Chatham Central 40.8 per cent of crimes were violent crimes, in Rochester East violent crimes made up 40.3 per cent of reported crime, and in the River ward it was 36 per cent.
Hannah Rourke, an analyst for the Community Safety Partnership at Medway Police working on addressing violent crime in Medway, said that it would most effectively be tackled by a “best of both worlds” approach.
“It would be naive to think crime has gone up, we’ve got a knife problem,” she said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. We think we’re going to be like London so we become like London.”
