Experts target drill music videos and social media in war on crime

The Birmingham-based Serious Violence, Organised Crime and Exploitation Unit (SVOCE) has noticed the increasing use of music as a method of gangs boasting, goading rivals and causing violent crime. In some cases they have shown juries defendants rapping in videos and boasting about their crimes.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill QC said: "Social media, mobile phone and drill music have been a massive recent change in crime over the last few years.

"The footprint a gang can leave now is massive, whether on social media or in drill music videos. Drill music is not a crime, it is meant to shock, so we cannot take it literally.

"However, we can use videos to show defendants - who say they do not know each other because there is no CCTV of them together and phones have been thrown away - actually do know each other because they appeared together in drill music videos."

Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Douglas Mackay said: "There are certain sensitivities we have to be aware of. Just by using the term gang can create unconscious bias, we are not about smearing defendants, and as with drill music, there are times when we will not present it to the jury."

The SVOCE team have a wealth of expertise dealing with youngsters involved in crime, and are trained to see whether an apparent criminal is in fact a victim of modern slavery and exploitation.

Mr Mackay added: "We are dealing with young offenders, we encourage our prosecutors to dig deep and the case maybe these youngsters who are committing crimes are themselves being threatened and forced to do things. In those cases they might be the ones being exploited, and we will look to divert them, even use them as witnesses."