1
00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:09,120
So we're going to 

2
00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:11,960
we're going to cover three
 key areas today.

3
00:00:12,040 --> 00:00:14,720
The first area is about the county lines
 movement.

4
00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:17,920
What that means
 if anyone has an understanding of what

5
00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:19,600
county lines is as well. 

6
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:22,160
Hopefully,
 this will promote a bit of awareness.

7
00:00:23,080 --> 00:00:26,280
Also, how to recognize maybe some

8
00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:28,880
some of the elements of the network
 and how that works.

9
00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:32,600
And then we're going to move on
 to look at knife crime

10
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:35,240
and the way that affects us nationally,

11
00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:38,120
and you might be surprised
 by some local statistics as well.

12
00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:41,800
And then last but not least,
 we're going to look at substance

13
00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:44,720
abuse, substance misuse, excuse me.

14
00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,640
And also a very recent topic
 that I don't know if you know,

15
00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:52,880
has been in the press about people,
 unfortunately, being spiked, it's happened

16
00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,320
and we've had a couple of
 local cases as well recently.

17
00:00:58,000 --> 00:00:58,680
So County 

18
00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,560
Lines is in in the most simplest terms,

19
00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,520
a business network,
 and that might sound quite

20
00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,320
neutral
 and maybe even a bit benign and boring.

21
00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:12,400
And actually, the process

22
00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:14,680
and the business model is quite dull.

23
00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,760
Unfortunately,
 that's the only part of it that is dull.

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00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:22,240
The rest of the network
 and the way County Lines

25
00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,400
operates is actually one very dangerous.

26
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:28,960
Two, very, very well, I would say,

27
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:31,840
impactful on certain parts of society.

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00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,680
And three,
 unfortunately, does lead to some very,

29
00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,800
very dire circumstances,
 especially for people of a younger age,

30
00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,720
because they are generally more vulnerable
 when it comes to county lines.

31
00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:51,800
How it works
 is, it uses almost like an Avon system,

32
00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:53,440
I know you probably don't know
 what Avon is, 

33
00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,320
but it's almost like a pyramid scheme,
 tiered system,

34
00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:58,080
although it's a lot uglier than that.

35
00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:02,920
What tends to happen is in
 some of the larger cities in the country

36
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:06,680
Birmingham, Liverpool,
 Manchester and London.

37
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:11,160
They operate a distribution
 network for drugs,

38
00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:16,720
and then it's tiered down
 using like a management system almost,

39
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,440
which sounds again, it sounds all right,
 sounds quite attractive.

40
00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:25,800
The management system is very effective
 in that there's a lot of broad competition

41
00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:31,280
from young, vulnerable age groups
 who then distribute drugs for very,

42
00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:35,560
very large, well-established,
 almost business level gangs.

43
00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:38,840
Yeah, it sounds a bit like almost
 something out of a movie.

44
00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,600
Some of it, you know, you could relate it
 maybe back to things like Top Boy,

45
00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:44,720
or maybe even your American gangster
 flicks,

46
00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:48,600
and it's nice to know you are listening,
 at your American gangster flicks.

47
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:51,120
However, it's very, very real. 

48
00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:52,360
What happens is

49
00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:53,920
the kind of 

50
00:02:53,920 --> 00:02:57,080
the top
 leaders at the very top of the pyramid

51
00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:00,520
have all the say
 and have all the distribution.

52
00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:05,560
And then they're kind of middle managers,
 then tier down what happens.

53
00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:08,800
They then have runners
 at the end of the system 

54
00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,120
who are the people who are most vulnerable

55
00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:13,120
and the ones
 who are most likely to be caught.

56
00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:17,680
It's very, very difficult to trace back
 the lines of the county lines

57
00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:20,560
back to the originators
 who distribute the drugs.

58
00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:25,280
So what tends to happen is the low
 hanging fruit, the people who were

59
00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,480
unfortunately way more vulnerable
 tend to get caught and arrested.

60
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:30,960
The thing is with that, 

61
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,920
those roles in those positions are filled
 almost immediately by someone else

62
00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:36,960
who is more than willing to take on
 and be paid

63
00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:40,080
the money for distributing drugs
 in smaller local towns.

64
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:43,360
Some of the worst affected
 areas in the country are,

65
00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,560
believe it or not, really remote parts of

66
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:48,760
the Welsh countryside. 

67
00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:51,960
I know that sounds quite strange,
 but there are some very, very,

68
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:57,520
isolated drug issues

69
00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,880
in small towns, and a lot of that happens
 over on the west coast of Wales.

70
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:03,160
A lot of that distribution 

71
00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,360
tends to come from the city of Liverpool
 and or Manchester.

72
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:11,000
So drugs, drug gangs are affiliated
 with Liverpool and Manchester will then

73
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,520
distribute down and sell that drug

74
00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,600
over in a small county and parts of Wales.

75
00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:19,560
It's really sad, 

76
00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:24,360
and there are county lines
 connections in very, very prominent,

77
00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:28,640
mainly back to Manchester,
 but a few back to other cities as well.

78
00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:31,760
And the way that that works is 

79
00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:35,960
you will have your kind of mid-level
 drug dealer come and visit the town.

80
00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:38,800
They'll probably come and visit
 in quite a smart, flashy car

81
00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:41,120
that then attracts 

82
00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:45,040
the kind of an idea of a lifestyle
 to a young person, usually

83
00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:49,040
from the age of twelve, but it has been
 even younger, studies have found.

84
00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:50,720
And then those young people are 

85
00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:54,320
then targeted and brought into kind of
 almost like a gang family system.

86
00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:59,240
And then from there
 they are recruited and used as a pawn.

87
00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:01,080
That's the best way I can describe it. 

88
00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:03,720
They're used an individual
 to distribute drugs,

89
00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:07,160
and if it don't just distribute
 a certain amount, they are then punished.

90
00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:11,720
They're either punished financially or
 sometimes they are punished through more

91
00:05:12,840 --> 00:05:15,480
or less savory means, such as maybe

92
00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:18,320
acts of violence or maybe acts of

93
00:05:19,280 --> 00:05:22,520
I'm sorry to say it, but
 maybe even sort of acts of sexual assault,

94
00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:26,040
and that is very realistic
 and that does happen. So.

95
00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:28,080
Moving on, 

96
00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,480
how do we recognize county lines? Um.

97
00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:35,080
Does it fit in particularly
 well enough to go off the screen 

98
00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:38,600
so this this is by no means a set formula.

99
00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,640
But you may notice this
 in parts of your community where you live.

100
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,920
You may notice new visitors,
 maybe to a small flat

101
00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:48,840
or maybe a single storey house
 where someone may be living.

102
00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:51,720
Maybe they are part of, but

103
00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,440
I don't want a label,
 but that could be part the benefits system

104
00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,320
and therefore may be more vulnerable
 to part of the distribution

105
00:05:58,320 --> 00:05:59,280
network. 

106
00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:03,480
A good way of noticing 

107
00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:06,160
these things
 tend to be your Audis, your BMWs,

108
00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,240
maybe even sort of higher than that
 you could be talking to Porsche

109
00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:10,240
or a Land Rover. 

110
00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,240
They're not cheap cars, as we all know. 

111
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:13,520
They may be rocking up 

112
00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:17,320
to a part of a community where you may not
 typically see a car like that.

113
00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:18,760
They may not stay long

114
00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:22,280
and you might
 see someone approach the window, the car.

115
00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:27,080
Yeah, I think you could probably put
 some parts of that puzzle together.

116
00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:31,920
Sometimes as well, quite often times
 the distributors will be drug

117
00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,840
takers themselves
 and probably may be even paid

118
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,520
in substance, rather than the will be paid
 in actual cash.

119
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:42,160
And then they collect
 what's called like a debt almost,

120
00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:46,040
or they get put into like a drug debt
 with the distributors and the dealers.

121
00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,720
Um, so really pretty,
 you know, pretty nice stuff.

122
00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:52,480
Sorry to be a bit sarcastic,
 but yeah, that's how the system works.

123
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:55,120
Knife crime, 

124
00:06:55,920 --> 00:07:00,560
has anyone in the room ever known of,
 or do they know

125
00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,400
of someone who may be a victim
 of either sharp objects or knife crime.

126
00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:09,760
That was more than 

127
00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:12,120
I was expecting, I'm not going to lie. OK?

128
00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:16,320
Does anyone know of anyone
 or may have heard

129
00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:20,160
of someone in their close up peer group
 who's been a victim of all or involved

130
00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,200
in potentially sharp
 objects on knife crime?

131
00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:26,040
That was way more than I expected. 

132
00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:27,920
Okay, that's interesting. 

133
00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:30,200
Victim of then hands up. 

134
00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:34,480
OK. Or involved with actually a weapon

135
00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:36,200
and maybe threatening someone else
 with a weapon? 

136
00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:37,800
Hands up if I know of that. 

137
00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:39,760
Not if they've done that. 

138
00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:42,520
Okay, that's interesting. 

139
00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:45,480
We might talk about that. 

140
00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:48,600
That's all right. OK. 

141
00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:49,280
All right. 

142
00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:53,240
I'm just just out curiosity,
 does anyone think that sharp

143
00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:55,920
objects on knife crime is a massive issue
 locally?

144
00:07:57,120 --> 00:07:58,640
Who said yes? 

145
00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:06,240
OK. Yeah, it depends on the locale
 where abouts in the town you are.

146
00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:07,480
That's interesting.

147
00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:14,000
OK. This is a debate,

148
00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:16,640
this is an introduction to the topic,
 and then we talk about afterwards.

149
00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:20,400
It will be in a minute, yeah. 

150
00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,200
Yeah, it's covered in three things first,
 and then we'll talk about it.

151
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:27,440
Yeah. OK. 

152
00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:27,880
All right. 

153
00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:31,440
So when I was doing my research on this
 this week,

154
00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,760
the last time I presented
 this was in 20 would have been 2019.

155
00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:40,120
Um, the statistics have changed

156
00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:43,640
and there's actually been a huge decrease

157
00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:46,880
in crime locally. 

158
00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:50,440
There's been a huge decrease in crime
 locally around

159
00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:54,240
nearly every aspect of local crime. 

160
00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:58,040
Which I found quite surprising,
 then, obviously, yeah, I suppose

161
00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:01,960
if people are in the houses more,
 even people who act on criminal behavior,

162
00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:06,320
the frequency is probably
 going to decrease due to the

163
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:09,560
International epidemic 

164
00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:12,680
I don't use like using the term
 pandemic is not technically correct.

165
00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:14,200
Anyway, 

166
00:09:15,560 --> 00:09:18,080
there have been huge decreases

167
00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:22,520
in sharp objects and knife crime
 nationally and locally,

168
00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:26,120
or, let's say, sort of sub locally again
 over the last couple of years.

169
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,880
I don't think that, though, is necessarily
 connected to the pandemic.

170
00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:32,520
I think that's probably
 got more connection with

171
00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:35,080
sort of the fashionable nature. 

172
00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:36,200
I'll come to you in a moment. 

173
00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:39,960
The fashionable nature
 of the area of the crime. And

174
00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:44,480
I think there's been a lot more awareness
 and a lot more police action around

175
00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:46,240
what's the word? 

176
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:48,320
The carrying of sharp objects or knives.

177
00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:51,200
Yes, you two over there,
 what you're going to say. 

178
00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:51,800
Go on. 

179
00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:58,400
The epidemic. 

180
00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:05,520
Yeah. 

181
00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:09,720
Well, well,
 I've got a few answers to your question.

182
00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:10,440
Yeah.

183
00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:17,960
Yeah. 

184
00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:19,440
Yeah. 

185
00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:23,560
Yeah, I understand
 the context of a question that's smart.

186
00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:25,480
Yeah. 

187
00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:27,800
Let me just finish off
 the last couple of slides, 

188
00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:30,520
and we'll come back to your question,
 I've got a few answers for you on that.

189
00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:34,120
My first 

190
00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:36,280
my first response, though, is creativity.

191
00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:38,880
People are creative, humans. So.

192
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:42,000
Yeah. Yeah. 

193
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,360
All sorts of different ways. OK,

194
00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:50,160
so just really quickly on knife
 crime and sharp objects,

195
00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:54,120
a knife crime is a prevalent issue,

196
00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:57,320
far more of a prevalent issue
 funnily enough.

197
00:10:57,360 --> 00:10:58,560
Thank you. 

198
00:10:58,560 --> 00:10:59,520
Thank you. 

199
00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,400
In the UK than it is
 in other parts of Europe

200
00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:06,440
saying that we have far, far
 less incidences,

201
00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:09,640
there may be our very long,
 distant cousins

202
00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,800
who have obviously
 a lot of incidences over in the US with

203
00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:16,360
gun crime. 

204
00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:20,080
I'm not I'm not advocating knife crime
 in any way whatsoever.

205
00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:25,520
However, statistically speaking,
 the chances of coming across

206
00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:28,640
that kind of crime are actually very,
 very low.

207
00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:31,960
You've got more chance,
 probably of just, well,

208
00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:35,000
unfortunately maybe being burgled
 in your own home and your car broken into.

209
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,440
But again,
 those statistics are very low as well.

210
00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,160
There is a different picture
 locally, though,

211
00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,360
with other areas of crime,
 and I'll come onto that in a moment.

212
00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:46,680
The other thing
 I will say about knife crime as well

213
00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,840
is when I was younger and

214
00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:54,320
and I need to be careful our word
 this in mainstream media,

215
00:11:55,040 --> 00:12:00,240
it was glorified somewhat
 and it had almost

216
00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:03,680
almost had like maybe even a bit of appeal

217
00:12:03,680 --> 00:12:06,600
for certain individuals in society
 who may be attracted to that.

218
00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:11,400
Again, often associated with gangs,
 not that I'm labeling gangs.

219
00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,000
However,
 that kind of behavior is quite often

220
00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:17,840
perpetrated and encouraged again

221
00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:20,480
in gang violence. 

222
00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,320
So substance misuse. 

223
00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:28,120
Not something that, 

224
00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:30,800
it's a difficult thing
 to talk about again,

225
00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:34,040
I think it's a bit more subjective
 this one. 

226
00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:39,560
However, there are obviously incidences
 where substance misuse does occur

227
00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:41,320
and it tends to be 

228
00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,640
maybe more of a social issue
 as opposed to a crime related issue.

229
00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,760
But again, it's a very individual subject.

230
00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:50,200
It can and does take place at college. 

231
00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,400
However, again, those cases
 are very isolated and very often

232
00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,720
either taken care of or identified earlier
 in the academic year.

233
00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:00,200
Pardon. 

234
00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,400
So get spiked at college? 

235
00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,240
No, you probably wouldn't
 get spiked to college, no.

236
00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:11,320
That's not a realistic thing
 to expect. No.

237
00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:17,200
Cases of spiking again, are very isolated
 and very individualized. OK,

238
00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:21,600
I've got lots of statistics, I'm
 happy to share this out if you want me to.

239
00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:25,560
I've got lots of statistics
 on the different types of classes of drugs

240
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:26,880
and how that falls. 

241
00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:30,280
But substance
 misuse is one of those areas that, again,

242
00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:33,440
we need to kind of
 maybe learn to recognize.

243
00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:36,600
Not necessarily in ourselves,
 but maybe in our peer group.

244
00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:41,760
And you probably all at least know
 someone who maybe if it was consumed

245
00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:45,240
some kind of drug, maybe at school
 or maybe on a night out.

246
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,040
I won't be surprised by that. 

247
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