These challenges form part of the government’s Safer Streets mission, which aims to:
- halve knife crime and violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a decade
- rebuild public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system
Objectives
By 2030 we will:
- make available new tools and methodologies to measure public confidence in policing to all police forces across England and Wales
- trial new technologies in at least 10 pilot locations within HM Prison and Probation Service to improve confidence in the justice system
- deploy scalable technologies to improve detection of knife carrying and reduce knife-enabled crime
- trial new innovations in at least four areas to tackle VAWG, with a national evidence resource available to support further adoption
Safer streets challenges
Concentrations of crime
This challenge focuses on developing world-class hyperlocal crime mapping, deploying the new capability to design and test effective local crime identification and prevention initiatives.
We will bring together new data sources with enhanced visualisation and AI capability to provide police with new insights into the location, nature and drivers of crime. Using these new insights we will work with co-funders , communities and partners to trial innovative, targeted interventions to tackle crime hotspots and specific types of crime through local initiatives.
A new regional and national integrated data map will be developed with partners by 2030.
By 2030 we will also test neighbourhood pilots that bring together:
- hyperlocal mapping insights
- problem-oriented policing approaches
- cross-government and public sector collaborations
- emerging technologies
This will deliver an ambitious 30% reduction in crime metrics for high volume offences targeted by well implemented pilots.
Pilots will be codesigned with local partners and adopt a test and learn approach. They will deliver demonstrable reductions in a range of metrics related to targeted crimes.
Violence against women and girls
This challenge focuses on the identification and prevention of violence and abuse against women and girls and enhancing support to victims and survivors. Working with communities, organisations in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, philanthropic funders, academia and industry by 2030 we will:
- fill critical evidence gaps, creating national evidence resources that will support policy, practice, future innovation and a reduction in VAWG
- nurture, accelerate, evaluate and scale high potential interventions and innovative solutions
- share learning and improve national capability to innovate and embed effective solutions that tackle VAWG
The aim is to demonstrate measurable improvements in:
- identification and enhancement of protective factors for children and young people
- safety in online and public spaces
- prevention, detection and disruption of economic abuse in intimate partner and familial contexts
- victims’ and survivors’ experiences of, and retention within, the criminal justice process (increasing confidence, satisfaction and retention)
Trust and confidence in policing
This challenge focuses on introducing new innovations to understand and positively influence public confidence and trust in policing.
Working with partners, we will strengthen the impact of neighbourhood policing by:
- developing and testing three new measures of public confidence and trust by 2027
- make the most effective measure widely available by 2028
- deploy the tools during 2027 to 2029 in trials assessing how police and partner activity, including the use of social media, affects public confidence
By 2030, this work will result in an evidence-informed playbook to support and improve public confidence in policing.
Confidence in the criminal justice system
This challenge delivers on the Ministry of Justice’s priority of tackling significant prison and community safety risks posed by one of the most rapidly developing and significant enablers of crime and harm in prisons, drones.
Working with government partners and industry we will develop and deploy innovative new technologies that disrupt serious organised crime by detecting and defeating the conveyancing of illicit items, facilitated by drones into UK prisons.
We will deliver new, affordable detect-and-defeat technologies through building UK industry capability, with trials in multiple locations and creation of a new UK testbed capability by 2030. These will deliver at least 20% cost reduction in tech solutions and trials will increase detection and defeat outcomes by 30%.
Knife crime
This challenge tackles the high-profile issue of knife crime and the carrying of knives.
By 2029 we will build the evidence base to identify behavioural indicators and test innovative ways of intervening in real time to prevent knife crime. By 2030, trials in high-crime areas will achieve a 30% reduction in knife crime metrics and inform an evidence-based knife crime playbook.
By 2030, we will also develop and trial new tools and approaches, that help identify individuals vulnerable to being drawn into knife crime, either as perpetrators or victims. These will improve the targeting of crime prevention and community support services.
How we will do it
We will focus on very practical, affordable and deliverable outcomes that will make a tangible difference in people’s lives. We are funding a wide range of partners, including research teams, technology developers, community organisations and experts from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to develop, test and scale new approaches.
We work closely with the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, and other national, regional and local government bodies, as well as police forces across the country, to ensure innovations can be adopted at scale.
Progress to date
In 2025 to 2026 £3.5 million has funded 27 projects in the VAWG and Concentrations of Crime Challenge areas.
The areas these have focused on include:
- technology, data, AI and emerging harms
- criminal justice, policing and system reform safety in public and online spaces
- safer public, civic and leisure Spaces
- prevention, education and early intervention
- inclusive, survivor centred and intersectional responses to VAWG
- online misogyny, masculinities and cultural change
Outputs and outcomes from funded projects
A ‘Safer Parks’ dashboard
The Safer Parks dashboard enables police and partners to visualise safety issues, prioritise improvements and embed gender-sensitive approaches in crime prevention and reassurance.
The Robyn and Molly tool
A digitally simulated training resource that promotes police officers’ knowledge of child sexual exploitation and enhances their understanding of trauma-informed practice when working with girls who have lived experience of sexual exploitation.
AI chatbot mapping
The first comprehensive mapping of how AI chatbots are implicated in violence against women and girls. This includes the development of a new typology to better understand the varying forms of abuse, identifying new forms of VAWG, namely chatbot-driven and chatbot-simulated abuse.
Ask a question about the Safer Streets mission
Email: saferstreets@ukri.org
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Last updated: 27 July 2026