PREVENTION & INTERVENTION ACTIVITIES

Police will and should have a role in enforcement and upholding the law to keep people safe. Our key focus however must be on prevention, working with partners and young people to reduce the drivers for offending, re-offending and victimisation.

Prevention and intervention work is undertaken by all local policing divisions across Police Scotland with support from specialist and business support functions such as our crime and performance analysts and intelligence reporting. Policing Togethers Children & Young People Team and the SVRU have built strong relationships with partners and education across Scotland. Local Policing Divisions supported by this national approach work collaboratively to identify emerging trends and produce materials and initiatives that can be utilised at a local and national level.

The SVRU also work on standalone initiatives in key locations across Scotland, working with communities and delivering campaigns to prevent violence in young people. One such example is ‘Quit Fighting for Likes’ which highlights the risks of sharing violent content through social media.

Police Scotland has developed the National Violence Prevention Strategy for Police Scotland 2025/26; the four key priority areas are:

Violence and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) at transport hubs

Violence at educational and care settings

Carriage of weapons

Preventative pathways and interventions

As part of the wider initiative, Police Scotland’s Violence Prevention Licensing and Coordination Unit (VPLCU) are developing a National Toolkit to support local policing divisions and partners to provide effective prevention and intervention relevant to incidents involving weapons in schools. The VPLCU have engaged with partners in education and an Advisory Group has been established to strengthen the collaborative approach, focussing on safeguarding children and the wider education community as well as continually improving prevention and intervention activities.

The dedicated subgroup, Operation Stardrop, drives and coordinates efforts to address violence affecting young people, with a targeted focus on the four key themes as highlighted. The group operates with clearly defined activities and measurable outcomes aimed at developing, capturing and disseminating best practice and learning across the pursue, prevent, prepare and protect strands – both within the organisation and in partnership with external stakeholders. Each one of the 13 policing divisions works from a tailored analytical product, specifically designed to inform decision-making, prioritise resources and shape interventions in line with their Youth Violence Tactical plans. This alignment ensures that operational activity is intelligence-led, locally relevant and strategically coordinated, enabling divisions to address the root causes of violence affecting young people while responding swiftly to emerging threats.

There are of course many examples of effective prevention and partnerships across the country at both a local and national level with work undertaken by all divisions across Police Scotland.

G Division – One Glasgow Initiative is a multi-agency program aimed at diverting children and young people from crime, violence or who are at risk of offending. It is a police-led initiative working across the partnership spectrum and uses a whole systems approach.

U Division – Established a Divisional Youth Violence Governance Group which provides dedicated patrols, weekly taskings from Local Area Commanders and utilises intelligence and proactive Engagement with Elected Members.

E Division – Edinburgh also have the VOW project, who have mentors to be able to work with children and young people. The Sidestep project in Edinburgh, which is lottery funded in conjunction with PS and Edinburgh Council can identify children and young people on the cusp of SOC and help to divert them to more positive pathways.
4.8. Police Scotland also has a strong focus on community and youth engagement. It is important that we do not over-police or criminalise our young people and promote positive relationships. Our community policing approach in this regard is underpinned by our Youth Engagement Officers, previously known as Campus Officers. These officers who are usually a collaboration between education and policing are located within schools up and down the country. While having a policing purpose, they play an important role as part of the wider education team to engage with and educate young people on a range of safety matters, including violence. Officers support national campaigns such as ‘No Knives Better Lives’ while building positive and lasting relationships.

Our community focussed violence prevention model sees Police Scotland working hand-in-hand with the Scottish Violence Reduction unit and Medics Against Violence, through initiatives such as school engagement officer development days, the Quit Fighting for Likes campaign, hospital-based Navigator outreach and local multi-agency schemes including Do the Right Thing and Supporting Opportunities for Life programmes to build trust and promote safe, resilient communities and deter violence at its roots.

The approach to violence and the connected challenge of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), involving children and young people, is not a matter for policing alone and the intersection between policing and a range of partners and services is critical to a holistic approach. ASB crime involving children and young people has seen a reduction of circa 5% in 2025/26 YTD compared to the previous year.

We know that ASB tends to be dominated by adults rather than young people. However, when children and young people do engage in ASB this tends to be in the open space and involving threatening and abusive behaviour. This ensures that it holds a somewhat disproportionate space in terms of awareness and consequently in public discourse and concern. Locally available services for children and young people also features as an area of challenge. In the recent report on anti-social behaviour from the ASB Independent Working Group, commissioned by Scottish Government, the authors highlight inconsistent investment in youth services, many of which have closed and failed to re-emerge since the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, they articulate the need for a stronger funding model for youth services to sustain safe spaces and developmental outreach.