Waltham Forest – From Postcodes to Profits

In June 2018, Waltham Forest Council commissioned a team of LSBU academics, led by Professor Andrew Whittaker, to produce an in-depth study looking at how the operation of street gangs has developed in the borough over a ten-year period. The report was commissioned after the Council noticed an increase in violent crime coupled with a significant transformation in the way that gangs were carrying out their activities, in contrast with a decade earlier.

The research commission came at a crucial time, given the extent of media coverage of violence on the city’s streets and the pressure being placed on London’s Mayor to find pragmatic ways to tackle the problem.

LSBU’s gangs report was impactful when it was published. Extensive high profile media coverage of the findings helped to better inform an understanding of gang activity in London, while simultaneously generating useful discussion among key decision makers in local and central government.

The authors spoke to current and former gang members and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines, to better understand the behaviour, make-up, recruitment and purpose of gangs so that the Council could build on the interventions and services already in place.

While a previous study published ten years earlier, found that gangs focused mainly on postcode territories and demonstrated their identity and gang affiliation through “colours” and other insignia, the new report demonstrates a marked shift in behaviour towards a more organised business operating model focused on the drugs market and the desire for profits.

The main findings were:

• Gangs are becoming more economically driven and are operating on ‘county lines’, using young people to courier drugs beyond London;
• Territory is no longer strongly linked to postcodes, but is a business marketplace;
• There has been an increase in the involvement of women and girls, as they have a relative “invisibility” and are less likely to be searched by police;
• Gangs are divided about the use of social media, with some operating an “off grid” approach and using older technology, while others use it to reinforce “brand” and gang identity.

Waltham Forest Council followed up on the report by establishing the borough’s first financial investigative unit with the specific remit of investigating money-laundering, with powers to seize criminal assets.

The report informed a joint initiative between Waltham Forest Council and the Metropolitan Police to crack down on gang activity, leading to a significant 38% reduction in gang-related crime in affected areas.

The study has been extremely successful in highlighting the need to address the ever-changing nature of gang-related activity and violence in our cities. The positive outcomes seen in Waltham Forest, have the potential to influence other parts of the UK, through a ‘ripple effect’. This research is also having a wider impact because lead author, Professor Andrew Whittaker has been invited to be an adviser for the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology’s review of gang interventions and to be a guest speaker on the subject, at home and abroad, in Canada and the US. He is also serving as a Commissioner on the Poverty and Inequality Commission for the Smith Institute, chaired by Baroness Tyler, in the London Borough of Enfield.

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