Britains Crime Capitals

This week, Nick visits Liverpool – a city with a reputation for serious gun crime. The action follows Merseyside Police’s Matrix team as they hit the front line in their daily battle to tackle both the causes and effects of firearms on the streets. While the episode revisits some of Liverpool’s most shocking gun crimes, it also looks at how police are using new forensic technology to stay one step ahead of the city’s criminals in a bid to prevent further cases of injury and death. Additionally, there is an exploration of how Merseyside Police and the community have joined forces to fight gun crime. The police service’s comprehensive new approach to taking guns off the street now involves targeting illegal drugs production and other serious offences. They hope that this method will reduce fighting amongst criminal gangs as they compete for the spoils.

Nick Wallis joins the West Midlands Police Gang Task Force in Birmingham as they battle both the causes and effects of the city’s violent gang culture. The episode explores the devastating effect gang crime can have on communities, hearing first hand from the gangs themselves and from the families of past victims. The programme examines how Birmingham’s gangs have developed over the past twenty years and explores some of the worst moments in the city’s gang crime history. This includes the 2003 NewYear shooting which left two innocent teenage girls dead after they were caught up in a deadly turf war. The programme will also take a look at how the West Midlands police have started to turn the tide against the menace on the city’s streets by working to stop young people joining gangs.

Presenter Nick Wallis looks into Glasgow's reputation for knife crime and assesses how the local residents are working in tandem with police, doctors and other essential services to try to reduce the violence.