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Gun Crime: A False Picture?
Gun crime figures are being "inaccurately" recorded in Nottingham to protect its commercial interests, a community leader has claimed as an expert panel started a review of its police force.
Anti-gun campaigner Clayton Byfield said while Nottingham no longer had the high-profile murders that led to it being dubbed "Shottingham", there were still regular shootings on its streets.
The 44-year-old believes police officers must do more to talk to youngsters, and the "old-approach" of policemen in uniforms holding lessons in schools no longer worked.
His comments come as a task force, including two chief constables and the former boss of discount hardware chain Wilkinson, arrived in Nottinghamshire to review the force's operations.
The review panel has been sent in by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), which last month said there were
"enduring" issues of under-performance at Nottinghamshire Police.
Mr Byfield, who runs his own anti-gun and knife campaign, said: "Nottingham was badly wounded by a number of high-profile cases and we were known as 'Assassination City'.
What Nottinghamshire Police and the city's council have done is bury their heads in the sand and tried to handle all these serious types of crime on the quiet.
Their crime figures are totally inaccurate. If the figures from hospitals, of people coming in with gunshot and knife wounds, were used, the figures would be a lot greater.
The reason they are playing it down is because of the commercial status of Nottingham. If crime is high, people won't want to buy homes here, set up businesses or send their children to university in Nottingham.
But we should be asking ourselves 'What are we going to do to tackle the gun and knife crime
problem?"
Mr Byfield believes the answer to Nottingham's problems is a greater police presence on the streets. He founded the No Gun Organisation and runs an outreach project called Done With It in Nottingham, where he and colleagues try to break down rivalries between gangs from different postcodes.
He also works in schools across the East Midlands, but the father-of-five says his projects received no financial support from Nottingham City Council and he has to pay for the work in the city out of his own pocket.
Mr Byfield, who has lived in Nottingham since he was four, said: "Kids don't trust police officers when they go in to schools wearing their uniform. Saying 'I'm a big bad officer and I'll cart you away if you're naughty', like in the 1970s, doesn't work anymore. The police have to get off their bikes and spend more time walking on the streets and talking to kids on their level."
It emerged last month that members of Nottinghamshire Police Authority are frustrated with the way officers record crimes to show the force in a positive light.
Their methods make it difficult to compare Nottinghamshire to other forces but when these comparisons have been made, the Home Office has found that while policing in the county is improving, it is not doing so as fast as in
other forces.
As a result, the HMIC said last month it was sending in a team of experts to review Nottinghamshire Police's operations and help chief constable Julia Hodson. A spokesman for HMIC said at the time: "We have not seen a convincing plan for improvement.
HMIC have secured a strong team to objectively review the root cause of their problems - whether they lie with the force, the police authority or the way they work in partnership."
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