Council rejects taskforce to tackle gangs
BIRMINGHAM City Council has rejected demands for a joint task force to be set up to tackle gang gun and knife crime and sexual exploitation.
The Conservative group made the call after the Birmingham Post revealed how a crimewave was linked to the groups, including rising shootings and stabbings.
The Post also revealed how gang members in the south of the city were targeting children for abuse, with some attacks allegedly filmed on phones.
But the taskforce proposal, which would have included West Midlands Police and other councils in the region, was not supported by the ruling Labour group.
Northfield Conservative Councillor Randal Brew led the calls for the taskforce.
“It was extremely disappointing that the Labour Group chose to ignore one of the biggest issues residents and the police face with their stretched resource by rejecting a sensible suggestion that would have joined up resources across public services to tackle gangs and exploitation,” he said.
Debbie Clancy, Conservative councillor for Longbridge and West Heath, who seconded the motion, said: “Gang culture most tragically affects those lives directly caught up in it – the parents who lose their son in a fatal stabbing; the young girl dragged into a life of sexual exploitation; the family torn apart by drugs. But it also has a wider impact on residents across the city, through the car crime and burglary used to fund the gang lifestyle, and through loss of business and tourism in our city that the negative headlines bring about. More money alone will not tackle this issue.
“We need to stand together across public sector bodies and across political parties, and I will continue to campaign for that to happen despite Labour’s rejection today.”
The Post told earlier this year how three new gangs had emerged in south Birmingham; the Frankley Killers and the 61 and 247365 groups.
Last week Police & Crime Commissioner David Jamieson unveiled a £2 million package designed to steer youngsters away from crime, including an extension of the police cadet programme.