ABSTRACT
The concept of partnership working, and the need for various agencies to work together to combat crime and disorder, has been a consistent theme in the community safety field in the UK for the past decade. Beginning with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, this chapter examines how policy has evolved – with the movement away from the three-year cycle of crime audits and strategies towards the introduction of the annual rolling strategic assessment and emphasis on the National Intelligence Model (NIM) in supporting an ‘intelligence-led’ approach. The importance of data sharing between agencies in ensuring effective partnership working is also examined, with consideration of the increasingly coercive policy being used to ensure the exchange of data between responsible authorities. The chapter also examines the constraints on data sharing, as well as providing examples of how the use of health data can provide a more comprehensive understanding of certain crime problems.
