To tackle London's epidemic of violent crime we can learn from New York and Scotland

After last week's local elections politicians like me need to work out how we can put aside our differences to get to grips with this scourge

Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton died of gunshot wounds in a weekend of violence (PA)

Tragically, over a 24-hour period in London this weekend, five people were shot, one of them an innocent boy aged just 13. Another of the five, 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, died after being attacked in Southwark.

London’s murder rate has grown by nearly 40 per cent in just three years, and knife and gun crime rates have risen alarmingly in Tower Hamlets – the borough in which I am a councillor and call home – over the past year.

Following last week’s local elections, it is time that politicians of all stripes in the capital finally put aside their differences to address this epidemic of violence. It is crucial that no political party should seek to be ahead of the game; it has to be a collective effort. Without proper collaboration, we will be doing the country, our families and our young people a great disservice.

We need to look to places like Scotland and New York, where effective prevention strategies have resulted in a dramatic reduction in violent crime.

Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), established in 2005, has been so successful that there was not a single knife crime fatality in 2017. In Glasgow, over the past decade, homicides have fallen by 60 per cent. In New York, it is believed that more effective and aggressive policing has been a major contributor to the reduction in murders and crime in general, and there has also been a reduction in the number of inmates in the city’s prisons.

In his report on behalf of the GLA Conservatives, Shaun Bailey noted recently that young BAME people are less trusting of the police than the wider public. However, only 15 per cent of stop and searches relate to knife crime, with 60 per cent relating to drugs. Despite the fact that drug usage among white people is almost double that of black people, young black males are over 10 times more likely to be arrested for drug offences. It was suggested that stop and search should focus much more closely on knife crime to redress the balance.

In London’s boroughs, politicians need to get around the metaphorical table and agree what might be called a “Changing Prospects, Changes Lives” strategy, to target those who are at risk of becoming involved in antisocial behaviour and crime, channelling them instead into positive schemes and volunteering.

Ultimately, by boosting their prospects we need to get these young people into (or back into) further education and/or employment. Councils can fund positive activities through grassroots organisations, which have a relationship with those in need of such services and which can administer them effectively at a local level.

Throughout my election campaign, I focused on community safety. I met a young man called Christopher who built motorbikes from scrap metal to help keep his peers out of trouble. It is this type of activity that we need to promote, not only to give young people a positive focus, but to equip them with valuable life skills.

We also need to campaign for stricter laws surrounding the carrying of knives and ownership of guns, and for stop and search powers to be used ethically and with integrity. We also need to impose tougher sentences on perpetrators of knife, gun and acid crime. There have to be sticks as well carrots.

We need to work with families, schools and the young people themselves, ensuring that they feel safe and supported in all areas of their lives, and to prevent yet another family from enduring the tragedy of child loss through violent crime.

As Richard Taylor, father of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor, said in his 2017 Bafta speech: “Parents are crying, others are crying, the surge of killing has gone up in the city of London. I beg you all to stop this unnecessary killing of innocent people. Young people, spread the message.”

To my fellow politicians across the political divide I say this: listen to the families of those affected by violent crime, both victims and perpetrators. They are survivors and it is their voice, it is their story that can truly bring change and hope.