Salford Community Safety Partnership – Project Gulf


Organised crime is a national problem which has a corrosive effect on communities, manifesting itself in a prevalence of drug abuse, prostitution, anti-social behaviour and violence. Historically, Salford has a number of organised crime groups (OCGs) operating in its area. Despite the legislative requirement under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, these groups have continually remained 'under the radar' of a problem-solving approach by community safety partnerships (CSP).

Traditional  approach

Our traditional approach to OCGs, undertaken by a handful of national agencies and led by police, had generated limited outcomes; small numbers of arrests, short sentencing and limited seizure of assets as a result of our activities. Typically, subsequent positive community benefits such as built up trust and the removal of inappropriate role models from estates were short lived, with organised crime networks re-establishing themselves soon after intervention.

Salford Community Safety Partnership, in its commitment to delivering sustainable reductions in the risk and fear of crime, chose to address the long-standing issues by involving a wider range of partners to:

  • widen the scope of enforcement action and joint problem-sharing
  • improve intelligence and OCG threat assessment to deliver more cost-effective projects related to serious organised crime
  • strengthen communities. 

Community safety partnerships: pilot bid

In January 2010, this opportunity was realised when the Home Office announced the opportunity for 13 community safety partnerships to become national pilots to tackle organised crime through a joined-up partnership approach. Based upon our in-depth experience of organised crime, Salford CSP was confident that this new approach would provide a benefits for the victim, offender and community and for this reason we stepped forward to make our bid. As a result ‘Project Gulf' was born.

Since Project Gulf's launch (March 2010), Salford CSP has worked in effective partnership with over 30 organisations including the Environment Agency, Department for Work and Pensions, registered social landlords, and HMRC to deliver a joined-up response to organised crime.

Key questions

The project worked by gathering answers to the following questions:

  • Who are the main perpetrators involved in organised crime in Salford?
  • Who is likely to have involvement/interest in these crime groups?
  • Why do organised crime groups feel comfortable operating in Salford?
  • What are the business interests of organised crime groups in Salford?
  • When do organised crime groups undertake their business?
  • Where do organised crime groups operate (both in and around Salford)?
  • How do organised crime groups evade detection and arrest?

Once these key points were understood, a range of actions were undertaken in partnership with national and local agencies to target and disrupt organised crime activity, often around disrupting illegitimate businesses such as cafés, paint shops, car parks and tyre depots. Property and resources were seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act and reinvested into crime reduction and community projects; £634,000 was reinvested under this legislation.

Approach outcomes

This new approach realised far reaching outcomes including:

  • The project cost £319,000 to organise, but evaluation has concluded that there is a saving of £8,393,155 as a result. 
  • Positive media leading to increased resident confidence in enforcement agencies.
  • Significant numbers of arrests and long custodial sentences for benefit fraud, the import and employment of illegal workers and cannabis farm discoveries.
  • Seizure of significant assets including property, vehicles and six-figure sums of money.

Prior to Project Gulf, organised crime groups had seized the advantages of partners failing to work together, enabling them to thrive. Project Gulf coordinated the joint action and data sharing between the partner agencies which has enabled the agencies to seize the initiative in tackling organised crime. In a relatively short period, we have dismantled several business fronts that previously allowed criminals to generate profits and fund their criminality.

Within the City of Salford the seemingly ‘untouchables' became touchable, thus reducing their power and influence over communities throughout the city. The overall effect of Operation Gulf is that the public has greater levels of confidence in the police, the partner agencies and the Government. The public can see we are working together to tackle crime and to apprehend the people behind it. The public is also aware that we are listening and acting upon their concerns.

For a police and crime commissioner (PCC), tackling OCGs is vital to both reducing crime and increasing the confidence communities have in the police and other agencies. Intervention "upstream" can lead to significant additional financial benefits, including reducing the demand on agencies, social and economic costs of crime, and in recovering assets through the Proceeds of Crime Act – this can make a real difference in a time of reduced budgets. Equally, it will be important for PCCs to effectively communicate the benefits of this approach to residents to show the value of preventative action on this scale. Following Salford's example, there is now a real opportunity for PCCs and partnerships to work together to tackle this public menace.

For further information about this project, please contact:

Don Brown
Assistant Director Environment and Community Safety 
Salford City Council
Email: [email protected]