the reality is its not a fraction of the crime levels of 10-11 years ago.
In 2006 alone at least 3 young men were murdered or went missing in dubious circumstances, then at the end of the year a serial killer murdered 5 sex workers. There was also widespread lower level crime and anti social behaviour on all the suburban housing estates.
This sparked a massive Police operation as well as other local authorities clamping down on public alcohol and drugs use, with many music venues closing down or being subject to strict controls. The pressure has been kept on even when Police and public sector budgets were reduced.
what has since occured (not just in this town but across England) is they might have made the noisier party drugs scene a lot less prominent but pushed more stubborn younger people towards a darker culture of furtively doing harder drugs in and around their own homes on the estates (most are a mixture of what in USA would be called “projects” and more suburban affluent private housing).
This occurs in small groups with relatively fragile “friendships” only built up on what drugs people can get hold of and which can easily evaporate if there are hassles over debts. On top of that little has been done to fully address underlying problems with addiction, lack of jobs or anything constructive to do with life for some folk. the organisations which are trying to do positive work are disrupted by funding cuts and govt policies (even Christian groups find themselves losing funding because they dare to challenge the “abstinence based” policies of the current Government).
it is mostly younger people within groups of former friends/acquaintances attacking one another for a variety of reasons – there really isn’t a real threat to the wider population, perhaps a slightly elevated risk to younger people of street robbery or violent confrontations in some town centre areas.
Ironically its often the middle aged suburban folk who claim they are “scared” when they would very rarely find themselves being direct targets of this crime. It is understandable they are worried about some incidents such as gunshots and arson but I think the cops are doing their very best to keep things in hand. I don’t think the governments wider policies such as austerity or suddenly making all the “legal highs” illegal have helped matters at all though.
