Part of our work as a Violence Reduction Network (VRN) involves working with partners to reduce and prevent crime across the county. Operation Grip delivers a combination of knife crime education, community engagement and enforcement activity to support this.
Working alongside local policing teams, we identified 20 hotspot areas across Lancashire based on recorded homicide, rape and violence with injury. These became the focus for increased policing activity on a randomised patrol schedule.
This “hotspot policing” tactic involves using frequent, short high visibility patrols in focused areas where crime takes place. Alongside this, local operations have taken place to deliver an increase in high visibility police patrols and targeted operations against known offenders acting upon intelligence.
From October to December 2022, there was a 13% reduction in all crime in Grip hotspot areas compared with the same time in the previous year, and a 21% reduction in serious violence (robbery, rape, violence with injury and homicide).
Chief Inspector Dave Oldfield, of Lancashire Violence Reduction Unit, said:
“After identifying these areas, officers across the force have been making frequent, high visibility patrols and targeting known offenders and those vulnerable to violence and exploitation and the results we’ve seen from this are really encouraging.
But, tackling violence isn’t just for the police. Prevention and early intervention are at the heart of what we do, and we’ll continue to work with our partners to achieve the best possible outcome for victims and prevent future crimes and incidents within our communities.”
