Police chief welcomes £1.2m funding pledge to fight serious crime

A POLICE chief has welcomed a government pledge to give Hampshire Constabulary an extra £1.26m to help it tackle serious and violent crime.

The force will be handed more funding because it is among the 18 in the UK that are worst affected by such crime, Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced.

In the March Spring Statement the government promised to set aside £100m for police forces to help them provide additional officer deployments, improved intelligence and short-term operations – such as targeting habitual knife carriers.

Hampshire Police assistant chief constable Scott Chilton said: “We have had a real focus on this growth of violence for some time and this funding will further support our efforts.

“As part of Hampshire Constabulary’s focus on tackling those criminals who cause serious violence, we are already working closely with partner agencies such as health, local authorities and education.

“The solution is very much ‘whole system’ where we need to work with public bodies, volunteer organisations and crucially the public to prevent serious violence in the first place,” he said.

“This work is aimed at preventing serious violence, including issues that we have with knife crime at a local level. We will continue to target those people who cause misery to our communities.”

Hampshire’s share of the pot was the second lowest amount given to one force. It comes despite official figures showing a slight decrease in knife crime across the county for the year up to December 2018 compared to the same period across 2017.

The grant was confirmed ahead of the first meeting of a new ministerial taskforce set up to tackle serious youth violence.

Mr Javid said: “This money means forces can take urgent action, including more officers on duty in the worst affected areas. It takes a collective effort to tackle violent crime and I’ll continue to work closely with police and partners to end this senseless bloodshed.”