DAVID Cameron has vowed to use the work of police in Scotland in tackling gang crime as a blueprint for forces south of the Border to prevent a repeat of the riots that have caused devastation across England.

 

During an emergency session of Parliament yesterday, the Prime Minister indicated police and politicians would look to the example of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in Glasgow in order to thwart the street gangs which he said had been “at the heart” of this week’s disruption.

Mr Cameron said there was evidence street gangs, “mostly composed of young boys, mainly from dysfunctional homes” had been behind the co-ordination of the attacks on the police and the looting that followed.

He said: “I want us to use the record of success against gangs in some cities like Boston in the USA and indeed Strathclyde Police in Scotland -- who have done this by engaging the police, the voluntary sector and local government. I want this to be a national priority.

“We need to show the world, which has looked on frankly appalled, that the perpetrators of the violence we have seen on our streets are not in any way representative of our country -- nor of our young people.”

The VRU was established in 2005 by John Carnochan, a detective and former hostage negotiator, and intelligence analyst Karyn McCluskey with a view to creating a new approach to combating violence. Police work with community groups, health agencies, educational organisations and social workers to reduce offending.

In the past two years alone, its Community Initiative to Reduce Violence has resulted in a near-50% drop in violent offending among gang members engaged with the project.

Ms McCluskey, co-director of the VRU, said the unit had dealt with “recreational violence” similar to some of the instances seen south of the Border, and she hoped that more forces would be made aware of the tactics used to reduce offending.

She said: “It’s lovely to have this recognition but it’s been a long hard slog and we still have a long way to go.”

Strathclyde Police Chief Superintendent Bob Hamilton said the force has been ahead of the curve in addressing the impact of social media in organising gang violence. It follows concerns over the use of applications such as BlackBerry Messenger to help rioters evade police detection as they planned crime sprees.

“One of the biggest issues was the gangs going onto YouTube or Facebook and posing with knives and machetes,” he said. “No-one was taking action on this but we got real support from the procurator-fiscal and managed to identify 800 people.”

However, Mr Hamilton stressed the different dynamics of gang violence in the west of Scotland, adding that what has been successful for Strathclyde is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach for other forces to adopt.

He said: “In Strathclyde our gangs are primarily involved in territorial and recreational violence fuelled by alcohol. We’ve no issues with gangs being involved in the drugs trade, which is something organised crime gangs are into. I’m not being critical of forces south of the Border, but sustained activity here has been beneficial.”

Around 250 police officers from all eight Scottish forces were deployed to Manchester and the West Midlands on Wednesday to help bolster the fightback against rioters who had been raiding high streets and setting fire to shops.

Labour MP for Tottenham David Lammy has demanded a public inquiry into the Metropolitan Police’s initial handling of the violence at the weekend.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Home Secretary Theresa May was also critical of the police response to the riots, which flared after a protest over the death of Mark Duggan.

Ms May, who will report back to Parliament in October on a cross-Government programme of action to deal with gang culture, said: “It is clear to me that the original police tactics were insufficient. After criticism of previous public order operations for excessive force, some officers appeared reluctant to be sufficiently robust in breaking up groups.”

Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh later admitted that the force did not have enough officers on duty to deal with the chaos which engulfed the capital on Monday night into Tuesday morning.

He said: “It certainly stretched us. It is clear we did not have the numbers on duty to deal with that.

“Our officers did the very best that they could, they did it bravely and they put themselves in danger to do what they could for the safety of London.”

Last night Scotland Yard said it was dealing with 550 separate crime scenes across the London area, and had arrested 1009 people in connection with violence, disorder, and looting in the city since the riots began in Tottenham on Saturday.

West Midlands Police said they had arrested 389 people.