TOP police and city safety chiefs are set to hold a summit in Southampton in a bid to find new ways to tackle serious violent crime.

Police bosses, councillors and charity chiefs will attempt to thrash out a draft plan for combatting for violent crime in the city.

It comes as recent figures, published on the front page of the Daily Echo, revealed “notable increases” in violent crime, serious knife crime and residential burglary across the city.

Now key figures, including Hampshire Constabulary’s Chief Constable, Olivia Pinkney, and Southampton City Council leader, Chris Hammond, will meet with other key stakeholders on Thursday to plan a fightback.

Daily Echo:

The conference, which will be held at St Mary’s, is said to be the first of its kind in Southampton.

And city safety chiefs hope it will “galvanize an anti-violence movement” across the city.

In a programme for the event, delivered by GO! Southampton on behalf of the Safer City Partnership and Hampshire Constabulary, organisers said: “The conference will focus on the launch of our draft delivery plan in combatting serious violence across our communities here in Southampton.

“The key objective for this event is to bring together a number of city and community stakeholders in order to in order to consult on a draft Safer City Partnership Serious Violence delivery plan.

“In addition to this, the event will also allow delegates to explore what serious violence means in Southampton.

“Lastly it will also offer delegates the opportunity to identify unknown community activity and networks, with the ultimate outcome being that we as a city take this opportunity collectively to galvanize an anti-violence movement across Southampton.”

Speakers at the event, which is not open to the public, include Ms Pinkney, Cllr Hammond, and Enzo Riglia, who is Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner, Criminal Justice Portfolio Lead, Hampshire and the Isle Of Wight OPCC.

Daily Echo:

Superintendent Kelly Whiting, District Commander for Southampton, Karen Dawes, Strategic Lead for Hampshire’s Violence Reduction Unit, and Dr Sara Morgan, Lecturer in Public Health for the Applied Research Collaborations in Wessex, will also speak at the event.

It comes just weeks after figures released from Southampton City Council showed crime in the city rose for a fifth consecutive year.

Violent crime was the largest offence in the last financial year with 11,079 incidents, 779 more than in 2017/18.