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The courts in Manchester at the coroner’s inquest into the death of young courageous Jessie James have taken the brave and radical move to provide anonymity to vulnerable witnesses. For the first time, since his brutal gangland murder, the police now have usable witness statements.

Building trust and confidence and encouraging witnesses and members of the community to come forward and work in partnership with the police is critical to solving gun and violent crime.

Operation Trident, the London based community led investigative initiative to tackle the disproportionate affect of gun crime on the Black community was established against a background of unprecedented breakdown in the relationship between the Black community and the police. This lack of trust and poor relationship ultimately affected the way in which gun crime fuelled by crack cocaine was investigated, prevented and solved.

London’s Black community of the 1990s felt that they were “…over policed as criminals and under policed as victims…â€Â� The racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent bungled police investigations coupled with the disproportionate numbers of Black people who died in police custody and/or subjected to stop and search were a catalyst to these feelings.

Despite all this, there were many in the Black community whom fought hard to establish a more effective policing response based on proactive intelligence and community partnership.

The police approach to tackling gun crime at the time was to import criminal ‘police informants’ who, while informing were themselves terrorising communities. This was the case of Delroy Denton who was left free to rape and murder Marcia Laws, slashing her throat 18 times, and the informant Eaton Green who was ‘peddling’ crack cocaine and using his gun and although arrested was never charged. All of this added to the sense of fear within the community, whom were already too scared and frightened to come forward.

As a community we were caught between our thirsts for freedom, from the regulation and control of the police and the need we have for safety and security.

It is unquestionable that the historical involvement of the community in the development and operational delivery of Trident has really helped the Metropolitan Police Service to take steps towards creating a positive image and thus enhanced the levels of information and intelligence received by the police. Operation Trident remains one of the first effective community-led policing response to the Black communities’ concerns and its lessons can be learnt in Manchester’s Moss Side. Indeed we can all learn from the courage of Jessie James.

Claudia Webbe
claudia.webbe@gmail.com