May 2025 marks one year since Susan Dungworth took up her post as Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner – setting out on her mission to deliver safer streets and stronger communities.
Over the past 12 months, Susan has been the voice of the public, taking pride in being a visible PCC standing up for people across Northumbria on local and national issues. She has also worked closely with Northumbria Police, partners, and crucially local residents – to help push for improvements that both the public and the police want to see to help keep our region safe and bring local communities together.
She cites launching Project Shield, a partnership driven project aiming to bring down ASB and serious violence among her top achievements – as it has already helped deliver a 50% fall in such crimes in some targeted areas.
She has also said awareness and education are at the forefront of her plans and has already funded various training packages, resources, and educational inputs to help tackle issues such as violence against women and girls and knife crime.
Looking back at her first year in post, Susan said: “It’s been a busy and exciting first year in office and I have spent a lot of time with frontline officers, speaking to local residents and meeting with partners to truly understand the issues they face and how we can work together to deliver on the priorities that matter most to our communities. Getting out and about has helped me get a sense of what is working well and where we need to up our game – it has all helped inform my plan for safer streets and stronger communities that I launched back in March.”
When asked what she considers to be her key achievement since being elected, she said:
Launching Project Shield to tackle anti-social behaviour and serious violence is up there – it’s everything collaborative working should be and it has helped deliver a 17% fall in ASB and 20% reduction in serious violence in the areas that have been targeted.
“I was also proud of how our police responded and the region came together during and in the aftermath of the civil unrest last summer. My office was quick off the mark to launch my commissioner’s community fund and get money out there to fund a range of projects promoting community cohesion and strengthening feelings of safety in our neighbourhoods.
She added, “I have also made education and training a real focus for my office and I am hopeful of the long-term change work in this area can bring. Short-term we must get supporting victims right, but long term we need fewer victims needing support in the first place – education and awareness – that is what is fundamental to crime prevention. We now have 220 active bystanders trained up to help tackle Violence Against Women and Girls and have engaged with 34,350 young people & professionals through knife crime awareness sessions delivered by the Violence Reduction Unit. These are just two examples of many other projects we are funding to get in front of people and push for change.”
The Commissioner went on to add: “I am grateful to the Chief Constable, officers and our partners and of course the people of our region for all the support this year. In Northumbria, we’ve secured more than 150 new officers, staff and volunteers as part of the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee and with this I expect Northumbria’s residents will continue to see improvements to policing and I will continue to be their voice, ensuring that they receive the policing service they deserve.”
Susan Dungworth was elected as Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner on Thursday 2nd May 2024, and took up post on May 9th. Her Police and Crime Plan priorities are:
- Engaged and responsive police force
- Crime and ASB
- Serious violence and organised crime
- Violence against women and girls
- Hate Crime and Community Cohesion
- Victims and Justice
ENDS
Notes to editors
Other highlights include:
- Launched new Police & Crime Plan – Safer Streets, Stronger Communities
- Welcomed the Knife Angel to Sunderland and educated thousands of young people on how knives impact everyone
- Launched Project Shield to tackle anti-social behaviour and serious violence, with some areas seeing a 50% fall in such crimes
- Joined officers as new students experienced our night-time economy during Freshers Week
- Invested over £150,000 into community projects to tackle hate crime and promote community cohesion
- Trained up 220 Active Bystanders to help tackle Violence Against Women and Girls
- Welcomed £4m additional funding from Government to help continue the fight against ASB and serious violence
- Secured more than 150 new officers, staff, and volunteers as part of the Governments Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee
- Engaged over 34,350 young people & professionals through knife crime awareness sessions delivered by my VRU
- Worked with over 80 young people as part of our Trainee Detective Programme
- Funded local projects to tackle serious violence that over 2,400 young people have benefitted from
- Worked with retailers, business owners, councils, and partners to address shoplifting and theft
