Get the Echo newsletter - it has never been more important to stay informed Sign me up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Police grappling with soaring knife crime rates in Merseyside have turned to experts from Colombia - and were told "love" is a big part of the answer.

Dr Alberto Concha-Eastman, who helped slash stratospheric murder rates in his home city of Cali, was in Liverpool to advise senior officers and public health officials and suggested it is "unbelievable that we have to say love is important."

Merseyside Police are in the process of developing their own version of Scotland's much-heralded Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), after Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Jane Kennedy secured a grant of £3.7million from the Home Office.

The VRU, which has also been adopted in Cardiff and London, has seen remarkable results from treating violence like a disease using a public health approach, rather than treating it solely as a problem of law and order.

Ms Kennedy and senior officers are hoping that the model could stop rocketing levels of serious violence, particularly involving young people and knives, in Merseyside.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A major seminar about the new VRU, at the Force's headquarters in Canning Place, Liverpool City Centre, heard disturbing statistics about the rise of knife crime in the county.

Superintendent Mark Wiggins told a delegation of representatives from the police, health, education and local authority sectors that incidents involving knives more than doubled between 2015 and this year.

He also claimed that austerity driven cutbacks to youth work had "undoubtedly" led to a rise in knife crime.

Supt. Wiggins said: "We know that out there on the streets knife crime is rising. Between January and June 2015 we were recording an average of 44 offences of knife crime a month.

"The current average volume per month, based on the January to June picture, is 97. Some of that is about more accurate data, but that doesn't account for the rates more than doubling in the past five years...

"You will hear when you speak to people that simply, austerity and budget cuts has meant, that simple youth work on the streets of not just Merseyside but all the major cities, has reduced considerably, and some of that has undoubtedly contributed to the increase in serious violence."

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Supt. Wiggins said that the VRU will gather detailed data about who is likely to become a violent offender or victim and intervene - whether through education or support programmes.

Police staff will be housed alongside health and charity workers and other partners to co-ordinate programmes aimed at stopping young people from picking up a knife.

The public health approach has produced stunning results across the world, with Glasgow slashing murders by 60% in a decade and Cali in Colombia, a city blighted by violence linked to poverty and ultra-powerful drug cartels, halving its murder rate in 13 years.

Dr Concha-Eastman, former Regional Advisor for Violence and Injury Prevention to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the Americas, has been working with Professor John Ashton, an advisor to the PCC's office, in how to replicate the model's success in Liverpool.

In a wide ranging talk, he told the seminar that the formative years of a child's life are key to preventing criminal and violent activity and described love as a key.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

In the early 2000s, under the governance of mayor Rodrigo Guerrero, Cali began collecting data about homicides and targeted measures in problem hot-spots, such as restricting alcohol sales, banning the carrying of firearms and introducing education programmes.

But Dr Concha-Eastman said one of the most important aspects of the programme, which is designed to bring long-term change, is ensuring that at-risk children can grow up safely.

He told the seminar: "In 1996, I conducted research in my city to interview 50 (murderers) in prison, and compare their lifetime with another 50 men from the same neighbourhood that the inmates used to live when they were out.

"The difference in their life stories was totally amazing. Those in prison, those murderers, they didn't have a guidance in their early lives. They didn't receive true love.

"They didn't trust anybody, overwhelmingly the father was absent. Those who never committed a homicide, or never committed an assault or crime, they received love, received guidance, in schooling and family."

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

He gave an example of a programme in Colombia called "I did not give birth for death", which involved child rearing workshops for families in high risk areas.

He said: "There are and you can find many documents and papers displaying how important is early child development, and to be honest with you, sometimes I think it's incredible that today, we have to say that love is important."

After the seminar, the ECHO asked PCC Ms Kennedy about whether the work of the VRU could be undermined by chronic under-funding in the health service, the police, and court systems.

She said: "There is a risk, we are in unprecedented times of political instability, however, I don't believe here on Merseyside we can afford to let that just wash over us like a tsunami of chaos when we know what we have to do.

"I am committed to this, Steve Rotherham our regional mayor is committed to this, the leaders of the local authorities are all committed to taking this forward they've all signed up to it.

Follow reporter Jonathan Humphries on social media Do you have a story or tip-off? You can get in touch, in complete confidence if necessary, below: Follow Jonathan, or drop him a direct message, on Twitter here and on Facebook here You can read more of his stories here Email him on jonathan.humphries@reachplc.com Keep up to date with the latest breaking news here Like the ECHO Facebook page and follow @livechonews on Twitter

"Just as importantly, the leaders of the health service outside the democratic field, they're committed to it as well. The public have to hold us to account on this, it's the public who are telling us; 'we have had enough of (knife crime), we want this to stop'.

"If we don't deliver that, then what is the point of us? We are just going round and round in circles.

"We have got to do what we now know works because we have seen it work in a very different society in Cali, but the same principles, we know it works in Glasgow, we know it works in Cardiff so it absolutely has to work here. The underlying ingredients are not different."