Merseyside can no longer be described as having a "no grass culture" in the opinion of its most senior police officer.
Chief Constable Serena Kennedy spoke at the launch of Merseyside Police's new 'Prevention' strategy - a broad range of initiatives and plans to stop crime before it happens - at the MYA Our Place youth centre in Huyton.
Attendees heard about schemes where money is taken from the pockets of serious criminals and pumped back into the community, how youths at risk of falling into crime are shown a better path, and how police officers are working with community groups to "build resilience" and reduce tolerance of crime.
READ MORE: Teens raped woman after watching her being refused entry into club
Chief Constable Kennedy also spoke to the ECHO about the ongoing investigations into the fatal shootings of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Dovecot, 28-year-old Ashley Dale in Old Swan and 22-year-old Sam Rimmer in Dingle.
Thomas Cashman, 34, of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, has been charged with Olivia's murder, but there have not yet been charges in the other two cases despite a number of arrests.
Chief Constable Kennedy told the ECHO: "We're still making really positive lines of enquiry on both those investigations. I think the positive out of that is the way we really did get a lot of intelligence coming through from our communities.
"So I don't think we can any longer say there's a no grass culture in Merseyside because our communities were fantastic, in terms of the way we stood together both policing, partners and communities after those events."
The event heard of how this year local policing teams in Huyton worked with Knowsley Council to tackle "crisis point" levels of anti-social behaviour and crime caused by youths in the town centre, and how money taken seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) has been pumped into deprived areas of St Helens including Parr, Newton and Sutton at 'Participatory Budget Events'.
Those events, where charities and community groups can bid for POCA cash, have resulted in projects across the city aimed at providing activities for vulnerable young people such as an new DJ course with expert input and advice from the likes of DJ Lee Butler, a hair and makeup classes and football tournaments.
Chief Constable Kennedy spoke of how the tragedies that blighted the city in recent months showcased the need to "do things differently" and prevent tragedies before they happen.
The ECHO asked the Chief Constable what success would look like for an ambitious strategy where the outcomes could be difficult to measure. She said: "Prevention is quite hard for you to deem what success looks; like how do you actually know when you've preventing something from happening?
"For me; it will be about a reduction in crime and demand coming into our contact centre. We can also look and do interviews with those people that we've worked with, so actually improving the quality of those lives; what are the qualitative impacts?
"One of the things I want to actually do is increase the culture of thinking prevention first across the whole organisation."
Chief Constable Kennedy acknowledged that certain communities in Merseyside have a "tolerance of crime" and are fearful about repercussions, but she suggested the initiatives described in the Prevention strategy could help root out dangerous gangs.
She said: "The first place has to be having those really strong relationships with our communities. So first of all they need to know who we are, so that's why we're investing into neighbourhood policing, so we're putting more officers into our neighbourhood policing teams. So they know who their local officer, who their PCSO is.
"They can have relationships with them, but they can share what their problems are. When we do these events that you have heard about, such as the Participatory Budgeting Events in St Helens, which are done right across the board, we know we actually raise the expectations of those communities.
"We know some communities have a tolerance of crime, they shouldn't have that tolerance. We find these events actually lower their tolerance. They're no longer willing to accept that stronghold that some gang members have on our communities, and together they're much stronger.
"So it's absolutely about building those stronger more resilient communities, who instead of partners telling them what their problems are, they tell us what their problems are and instead of us solving them for them, we work with them to empower them to solve them themselves.
"The brilliant bit about that is it's POCA funding that's doing that. We use POCA funding, there's nothing better than saying to a community that the money we are using has come from serious and organised crime, I love that bit about it. The connections made at these community events are fantastic."
Also speaking at the event, Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell said: "The best way to build stronger, safer communities is to prevent crime from happening in the first place.
"It’s a priority in my Police and Crime Plan and it’s a priority shared by local people - more than 96% of whom told me they want the police to focus on crime prevention initiatives.
“Prevention is at the heart of good policing. So, I warmly welcome this launch, and the work being led by the Chief Constable, to embed this approach within Merseyside Police, putting it at the heart of everything we do."
READ NEXT:
Man buys nine separate tickets for one train journey and saves £360
First picture of police officer accused of 'abusing position for sexual purposes'
Remorseless 'predator' saw teenager heading home from night out as 'easy target'
Floral tributes for man, 36, who died after falling from bridge
Find the coins hidden on the ECHO website for the chance to win a £200 voucher
