New innovative approach to cutting crime in Shropshire

Agencies are working together in an innovative new project which aims to reduce crime and cut reoffending rates, reducing the cost of crime in Shropshire.

Shropshire Council, West Mercia Police, West Mercia Probation Trust and YSS (formerly known as Youth Support Services) will be based together in Shrewsbury. Together these agencies will work with (ex)offenders to identify, and support them in overcoming, the factors that cause them to offend.

The service, known as Route7, is based in Belle Vue, Shrewsbury, and works with people across Shropshire, meeting them in their own communities where possible.  The multi-disciplinary team provides the services offered to (ex)offenders under one roof, such as job and housing advice – cutting red tape and saving money.

The project is a West Mercia pilot scheme being led initially by Shropshire, and is a priority for the Safer Stronger Communities Partnership (Shropshire’s Community Safety Partnership) and the Local Criminal Justice Board.

Chief Inspector Sarah Chaloner, of West Mercia Police, who is leading on the project, said similar schemes had halved crime levels in other parts of the country:

“Evidence shows that prison alone does not work.  Six out of 10 people released from short sentences are reconvicted within a year of release. Research also shows that the majority of these short-sentence ex-prisoners want help and support to resolve the issues which cause them to offend, such as training, employment and debt management, but often they don’t know how to access these services.  This can lead to a cycle of re-offending that hits the tax payer and creates misery for victims of crime.

“Route7 aims to break this cycle of offending by providing help to access services for those who genuinely want to change, but it is not a soft option.  Anyone straying from their supervised programme will be swiftly targeted by the police.

“Several pilot programmes across the country show that crime can be halved by this level of intervention and while Shropshire is already a low crime area we want to make it even safer and introducing this service is part of our approach to doing so.”