Extra funding to increase roll out of Hotspot Policing

The government has announced that 18 police forces across England and Wales will receive a share of an additional £4.12 million to increase Hotspot Policing in towns and cities blighted by violent crime.

Developed by Essex Police, the tactic involves operating regular, intensive, high-visibility police foot patrols for short periods of time within specific areas where there is a risk of serious violence. First piloted in Southend-on-Sea in 2020, the tactic resulted in a 73.5 per cent drop in violent crime and 31.9 per cent fall in street crime in the 20 highest crime hot spots on days when patrols visited, compared with days they did not.

Other trials have shown similar results, with a recent hot spot operation by Bedfordshire Police across 21 hot spot neighbourhoods seeing harm from serious violence drop by 44 per cent on patrol days. Police data analysis will now inform which areas are most at risk of violent crime and where the patrols should be targeted.

The additional £4.12 million will bring the total funding given to the 18 chosen forces to tackle serious violence to £28.6 million in 2021.

Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said: “The government is working hard to confront violence in all its forms and make neighbourhoods safe. People want police officers visible on their streets, stopping violence and protecting people from harm and exploitation.

“That is what our smart new approach to Hotspot Policing does and I am delighted to see the tactic is already reducing high harm crime in some areas and look forward to this success being replicated in other towns and cities across the country.”

The 18 forces most affected by serious violence at the Grip programme’s inception in 2019 were determined by hospital admissions volume data from 2015/16 and 2019/20. They are: Metropolitan Police, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Northumbria, Thames Valley, Lancashire, Essex, Avon and Somerset, Kent, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Sussex, Hampshire, South Wales.

The Home Office have also provisionally allocated £780,000 of one-off funding to support two force areas – Cleveland and Humberside – affected by serious violence but not currently in receipt of Grip funding.