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It is one of 18 units across the country set up to reduce the number of people killed or maimed as a result of serious violence.

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Instead of simply relying on police enforcement to identify and prosecute those responsible, agencies across South Yorkshire are working together to address the issue.

Taking a ‘public health approach,’ the unit’s aim is to treat violence as a disease, establish the root causes and prevent it spreading.

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The South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, based at the Shepcote Lane custody site in Sheffield, was launched in September 2019 with government funding.

It’s most recent grant allows its work to continue until 2021.

On awarding its funding, the Home Office said it expects the unit to lead and co-ordinate the local response to serious violence.

Initiatives funded so far include projects aimed at drawing young people away from violence or helping others to break out of a cycle of crime and violence.

Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings has previously said that he expects the unit to ‘ come down hard on those who resort to violence and the gangs where violence often breeds’.

But he said the role of the unit is also to ‘understand the reasons why people are drawn to violence in the first place and find ways of steering them away from it’.

There have been a number of examples of serious violence on the streets of Sheffield this year.

Here is a list of incidents of the type the unit wants to see eradicated.

Anyone with information on gun crime should call 101.

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