Chief Constable Paul Scott-Lee on his fight to beat gang culture

Apr 14 2009 by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

THE retiring West Midlands Chief Constable today described the New Year’s party murders of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare as one of the “darkest times” in his seven-year reign.

Sir Paul Scott-Lee said the “futility of the waste of life” of the teenagers gave him the determination to break up the gangs and also prevent others stepping into their shoes.

Letisha, aged 17, and 18-year-old Charlene had stepped out for a breath of fresh air when they were cut down in a hail of machine gun bullets, the innocent victims of a gang war between the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew being waged on Birmingham streets.

Sir Paul, who retires at the end of this month after seven years in charge of West Midlands Police, said the tragedy, in January 2003, helped transform the way police dealt with gun crime.

“Every murder is a catastrophe but this one hit home in a very real way,” said Sir Paul, aged 55.

“I hadn’t been with the force for many months. I went to the scene and stood with my officers on a miserable, wet early morning and the enormity of it hit everybody.

“It gave me a determination to say catching the offenders was a priority, but it wasn’t enough.

“We were fortunate we had an organisation that felt it had the capability to bring the offenders to justice but also a willingness to see what else could be done.”

In the years since, key gang members have been jailed for a variety of offences, diminishing the gangs’ influence on the streets.