Speaker Evening - Keith Jack, Violence Reduction Unit

On Thursday, 15th February 2018, members of the South Queensferry Rotary Club listened to a very informative and interesting talk on the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit by Inspector Keith Jack.  The unit was established in 2005 and is funded by the Scottish Government.  The unit has adopted a public health approach where violence is seen as a contagious disease, and as such to prevent it, the root causes must be examined. Since its establishment there has been a 10% reduction in homicides and a 44% reduction in serious 40 year low in violent crimes in Scotland. The VRU is the only police member of the World' Health Organisation's Violence Prevention Alliance. The VRU believes violence is preventable - not inevitable.

Keith joined Central Scotland Police in 1999 where he worked extensively in response and community policing as well as running a pro-active crime team. Keith joined the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit as project lead for our assets based community development work in Alloa, as well as retaining an overview of officers based in schools, known as 'Campus Cops'. Keith now leads on the development and implementation of our Navigator program, a violence intervention initiative based within the emergency departments of Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Keith told us that these reductions have been achieved through partnerships, building up meaningful relationships in the community, creating trust through friendship and honesty and simply by 'being nice'.  He also told us about Navigator, a new initiative based in Edinburgh.  This is a violence intervention unit in emergency departments in hospitals where people who have themselves been in violent situations talk with people affected by violence.  They ask how they can help and build up relationships with them to try to break the cycle of violence.  

Keith stressed the importance of early intervention, prevention and a change in life style.  He talked about adverse childhood experiences (ACE) of abuse, neglect, divorce, mental illness and domestic abuse. If a pregnant woman is living in a violent or stressful situation, she will have high levels of testosterone in her body which are passed on to the baby, so children are born with these high levels causing them problems in later life. (Children from unstable backgrounds have lower attainment levels, behavioural problems and have poor relationships. They often have drug and alcohol problems and live on average 20 years less.) To counteract this, community intervention with parents, grandparents and perpetrators is necessary and important work is also done in schools.  

There were many questions from the floor, proving how thought-provoking and interesting Rotarians found the presentation.  Keith was introduced by Alan McCloskey and the vote of thanks given by Sandy Mackenzie.