Violence on Tyneside may spike before it reduces as the country enters its first summer without Covid restrictions.
That's the view of the man in charge of the North East's first specialist Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), set up to tackle the devastating scourge of knife crime and violence.
Northumbria VRU director Steven Hume has today set out the unit's plans for the next year, as he warns the area could face a post pandemic rise in serious crime.
