Peeling back the layers of organised crime in local communities: integrating data and analyses to strengthen the narrative

Abstract

At a national level, the scale and diversity of the threats from organised crime are starting to be understood. Locally, however, police forces remain uncertain how to robustly assess organised crime within their own borders. To address this and contribute to the development of a local ‘narrative’ of organised crime we studied two UK neighbourhoods where organised crime was known to be impacting. Our study brings together data from multiple sources that each offer a distinct perspective: the measurable impact of organised crime as represented in recorded crime, the groups, offenders and activities recorded by the police for the purposes of developing intelligence on organised crime, and finally the qualitative impact on communities as described by local practitioners and community representatives. The implications for developing the perspective of practitioners and their approach to tackling organised crime are discussed. In summary, organised crime groups are responsible for a much wider range of harms than that expressed by the national police intelligence mechanism, much of this harm is local, and this needs to be factored in when considering priority and intervention from police and partners.