Southampton's postcode war gangs had eighty members

The postcode wars between the SO14 and SO16 gangs saw drug dealing, robberies and knife crime fill our streets.

Last summer, a wave of youth violence washed over the east of the city, with a spree of serious stabbings in Thornhill in the space of a few weeks.

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The most concerning saw a 60-year-old man stabbed in the neck and torso near a primary school, and six teenagers arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

But a crackdown against youth violence in Southampton has seen what police describe as an end to the decades-long feud between the postcode gangs - and a 17 per cent reduction in violent crimes involving young people across the city.

Explaining the secret to their success, Southampton Chief Inspector Marcus Kennedy said: "Understanding the root cause of why individual teens commit crimes has been crucial. We need to know the bigger picture.

“We are partnered up with child services and youth justice – they are able to put teens on a different pathway, as they did for many in the postcode issue.

“The last thing we want to do is use the power of arrest on young teens and lock them up – that’s not how you deter someone from re-offending.

“You cannot arrest your way out of a problem.”

How police broke the gangs

Chief Insp Kennedy, along with his colleague Chief Insp Chris Douglas, have spent the last18 months nailing down strategies to tackle youth and gang related crime across the city.

During the last months of 2022, police intelligence showed that the rivalry between the SO14 and SO16 gangs was growing.

A spate of knife crimes, drug activity and robberies were all linked to the postcode war, with the police launching Operation Sabretooth to deal with the rising problem.

Chief Insp Kennedy said: “We have known for decades there has been a rivalry – so we carried out enquiries and made arrests where necessary.

“Intelligence showed there was organised crime activity and drug operations.

“We then targeted the adults and ring leaders coercing the children.”

Gang members identified

At the start of Operation Sabretooth, police identified a group of 60 to 80 teens that were thought to be part of the warring gangs - and sent letters home to parents warning their child could be involved in gang-related drug activity or knife carrying.

The letter asked parents to consider: "Do you know where your child is tonight? Do you know what is in their bag? Have they got new shoes or a mobile they didn’t pay for?"

Chief Insp Kennedy explained: “This was not to be patronising to parents, but as we all know – children lie to their parents.

“Often these teens come from impoverished backgrounds, meaning they may have never had an expensive pair of trainers or watch.

“It’s very easy for an adult gang member to manipulate a youngster that isn’t going to school or hasn’t got any money.

“These tactics include buying young teens and children a new phone, new shoes, or a nice watch and then saying - I just need you to run these drugs for me."

Using ex-gang members to help reduce crime

Children's services at the council, schools and the youth justice system have helped the police ensure that it only needs to send someone to court as a last resort.

This is call the ‘diversion route'.

Chief Insp Kennedy said: “We have an education department that goes into schools and tells them about the dangers and coercion tactics used by old gang members.

“This is often led by an ex-gang member.

“Teens are seldom going to listen to an officer telling them why crime is bad – but to listen to someone that has lived that experience and changed their life around can be extremely powerful.”

From the pool of 60-80 children identified in the operation, only four ended up in court and Chief Insp Kennedy said that three of them had already started to make positive changes to their life.

Branching out to the east of the city

In the summer of 2023, a spree of stabbings rocked Thornhill.

On Monday, June 19, a 60-year-old man was stabbed on Burgoyne Road, near Hightown Primary School, in broad daylight.

Six teens were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder but all were released without further action, except one, a 17-year-old boy who remains on bail.

On July 11, a 14-year-old boy was arrested after another boy, also 14, was stabbed in the back on Linacre Road.

Days later, on Saturday, July 15, a 17-year-old was stabbed in the leg in Hinkler Green, who then took refuge in the Hinkler Pub and a 16-year-old boy was arrested.

Chief Insp Kennedy said: “There was a great deal of knife related crime in Thornhill in a very short space of time during summer of 2023.

“Chief Insp Douglas took the approach of Sabretooth and implemented a strategy in Thornhill called Operation Meero.

“We bid for increased funding to allow for more police presence in Thornhill and we completely flooded the area with officers for a prolonged period.

“We did a knife sweep which was very successful – and used our diversion tactics.”

The young people regularly carrying knives in Southampton

As part of Operation Meero, police carried out knife sweeps and knife amnesties, with bins placed at police stations to dispose of knives without fear of arrest.

They also use a habitual knife carrying list to identify young people who have been caught with a knife more than once within the space of a year.

These people are then firmly on the police's radar, as well as the supporting services who try to move them away from crime.

At the end of December 2023 for the ages of 10 to 21, there were a total of 63 individuals on the habitual knife carrying list in Southampton, broken down as follows:

City Centre: 16

North: 11

East: 12

West: 24

Stats show youth crime is down, police say

Due to the impact of Sabretooth, and then Meero, Southampton has seen a 17 percent reduction in youth violence across the city, police say.

It has now been made a staple of the police's approach to tackling the issue in Southampton.

This follows a pattern across the city of reduced crime across all ages.

Notably, anti-social behaviour, often associated with young people, is down 26 per cent.

The breakdown below shows the reduction in crime across the city from January to December 2023, compared with January to December 2022.

All reported crime: down 3.6 percent.

Violence against the person: down 8.7 percent.

Violence with injury: down 7.2 percent.

Violence without injury: down 9.3 percent.

Residential burglary: down 28.7 percent.

Bicycle theft: down 34.3 percent.

Criminal Damage: down 13 percent.

Public order Offences: down 13.8 percent.

Crimes with a domestic violence flag: down 10.7 percent.

Anti-social behaviour: down 26 percent.