Shootings, gangs and violent incidents in Manchester: Developing a crime reduction strategy

A Publication of the Policing and Reducing Crime Unit Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate 4th Floor, Clive House, Petty France, London SW1H 9HD Introduction The Targeted Policing Initiative (TPI) forms part of the Government’s Crime Reduction Programme. The TPI comprised a range of evaluated action projects. This briefing note summarises a report that describes the preliminary research on one of them, based in Manchester. The project to which this report relates is unusual in that it involved a problem-oriented approach requiring a relatively long, six-month research phase prior to putting measures in place. It is also unusual in attempting to address a major crime problem, serious gang-related violence rather than volume crime. In both of these respects, it draws inspiration from an apparently very successful initiative in Boston, Massachusetts, Operation Ceasefire, which was associated with a rapid decline in numbers of fatalities caused by use of guns or knives (Kennedy et al, 1996; Braga et al, 1999).