The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit is a

Police Scotland Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...

initiative established in January 2005 (by

Strathclyde Police Strathclyde Police was the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfre ...

) which uses a

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

approach to target all forms of violent behaviour including street/gang violence,

domestic abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for '' intimate partne ...

school bullying School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim repeatedly by acting aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be verb ...

and

workplace bullying Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, and physical abuse, as well as humiliation. ...

National Expansion

In April 2006, the Scottish Government extended the SVRU’s remit nationwide (Scotland) thus creating a national centre of expertise on violent crime. In June 2019, following the success of the Scottish VRU and implementation of a new London unit headed by

Lib Peck lib or Lib may refer to: Computing * Library (computing) ** .lib, a static library on Microsoft platforms ** , a directory on Unix-like systems * Lib-80, a Microsoft Library Manager tool; see Microsoft MACRO-80 People * Lib, one of two Jaredit ...

(former leader of Lambeth council), the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...

Sajid Javid Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

announced that he was giving £35m to police and crime commissioners in 18 local areas to set up their own local violence reduction units. This would include over £3 million to set up a VRU in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Projects

Historic Initiatives

In 2008 the SVRU set up the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) in a bid to end violence between established street gangs once and for all. The initiative was heavily modelled on the successful Boston Ceasefire Project (

Operation Ceasefire Operation Ceasefire (also known as the Boston Gun Project and the Boston Miracle) is a problem-oriented policing initiative implemented in 1996 in Boston, Massachusetts. The program was specifically aimed at youth gun violence as a large-scale probl ...

) and Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence. The CIRV has three basic components (enforcement; services and programmes; the moral voice of the community) and is a partnership between

, Social services in Scotland,

Education Scotland Education Scotland ( gd, Foghlam Alba) is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, tasked with improving the quality of the country's education system. Origins The creation of the Agency was announced by Scottish Government Education a ...

and other entities. Police operational activity, diversion projects, and help with

careers The career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways. Definitions The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defin ...

, education, and

anger management Anger management is a psycho-therapeutic program for anger prevention and control. It has been described as deploying anger successfully.Schwarts, Gil. July 2006. Anger Management', July 2006 The Office Politic. Men's Health magazine. Emmaus, PA: ...

are all used in an attempt to end gang violence. Within three years of its introduction, more than 400 young men had joined the initiative. Due to the correlation between alcohol misuse and violence in Scotland, in 2012 the SVRU piloted the use of SCRAMx transdermal alcohol monitors ("sobriety bracelets") which allow the blood alcohol concentration of the wearer to be monitored remotely so allowing compliance with sobriety to be monitored. In an interview with the

Guardian newspaper ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

Niven Rennie (Director of the SVRU since 2019) defended the use of stop and search, saying it was a key element of the unit's early work ("you can't have enforcement without search"). Stop and search is a controversial power which gives police the authority to stop, question and search a person they suspect may be committing any of a variety of offences which often comes under criticism for giving police officers the power to target certain groups (for example, those from Black or Minority Ethnic communities).

Current Initiatives

The Navigator programme works out of hospital emergency departments with the aim of stopping the "revolving door of violent injury" seen in Scottish hospitals and easing the pressure of violence on the NHS.

Medics Against Violence

The unit collaborates closely with the Medics Against Violence charity, which sees NHS staff and healthcare students educate secondary pupils on the risks and consequences of engaging in violence. In addition, MAVS provides training to dentists to intervene in domestic violence while the patient is in the dentist's chair.

Leadership

the Violence Reduction Unit was led by director Niven Rennie after SVRU co-founder and former director Karyn McCluskey became the new head of

Community Justice Scotland Community Justice Scotland is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, which is responsible for reducing reoffending. It launched in April 2017. It was established by the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, rep ...

References

{{reflist Law enforcement in Scotland Crime in Glasgow