Merseyside's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) said that a lack of resources afforded to the region in the past decade has made the police's job "much harder".
The ECHO spoke to PCC Emily Spurrell on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot on Tuesday (August 23), after Olivia Pratt-Korbel, 9, was fatally shot on Monday (August 22). Merseyside Police believe Joseph Nee, 35, who was being chased by a man armed with a gun, forced his way into Olivia's house on Kingsheath Avenue at around 10pm.
The offender ran in after Nee, firing a number of shots - one of which hit Olivia's mum Cheryl in the wrist before fatally wounding Olivia. A dark-coloured Audi then appeared at the address and picked Nee up, leaving Cheryl and daughter Olivia behind.
READ MORE: Target of shooting that killed Olivia Pratt-Korbel named as convicted burglar
Olivia was rushed to Alder Hey Children's Hospital, where she later died. Cheryl was taken to Aintree Hospital. The 35-year-old man who was also shot during the fatal attack, has been arrested by Merseyside Police. The man, who remains in hospital, is under arrest for breaking his licence conditions.
Police remain on the hunt for the gunman, while the local community has been rocked by what Mayor Joanne Anderson called "an appalling act of evil".
At the scene in Dovecot on Tuesday, residents who spoke to the ECHO raised concerns public service cuts imposed on Merseyside over the last decade and the effect the cuts have had on policing.
One neighbour told the ECHO that he believes that families will no longer feel safe in the area and he thinks that the number of police on the streets of Dovecot is part of the reason for this.
The ECHO put these concerns to Ms Spurrell, who said that cuts have taken their toll on Merseyside Police over the past decade. She said: “One of my priorities when I was elected was around visible policing because I know that every community that you go to in Merseyside will say that they don’t see enough police - it won’t be unique to this area.
"People will all say that they don’t see enough police officers, and rightly so. We’ve seen a decline in community policing in the last 10 years. We’ve lost 1100 officers and staff, that is absolutely going to take its toll on a force like Merseyside - that is going to make the Chief Constable’s job much harder in terms of putting resources where they need to be."
The killing of Olivia was the fourth fatal attack in Merseyside in a week. Sam Rimmer, 22, was shot dead in Dingle on August 16. Ashley Dale, 28, was shot fatally in her own home in Old Swan on August 21.
Karen Dempsey was stabbed in the chest while trying to break up a fight on Cherryfield Drive in Kirkby on August 22. She died in hospital a short time after.
The shooting of Sam Rimmer marked the first murder involving a firearm in Merseyside in more than a year, since the death of 26-year-old Patrick Boyle in Newway, Huyton, on July 1, 2021. In the 2021 calendar year, there were 43 shootings recorded on Merseyside, the lowest in 21 years.
However, the city has since been rocked by three fatal shootings in a week. Ms Spurrell said that she will be speaking to the Chief Constable to ensure that the events of the past week are not seen again.
“I do think we’re in a very different place to where we were 10 years ago. I think we are much better at tackling organised crime now, the police are very proactive, they’ve got a huge involvement in terms of organised crime and going after gangs and drug dealers that we know can lead to some of that violence.
"Until we’re a bit further into the investigation to know exactly what has occurred this past week, we probably won’t know for sure whether anything could have been done differently or whether we could have prevented these things from happening.
"I will speak to the Chief Constable in terms of asking ‘what more can you be doing to stop these kind of things happening again."
However, Ms Spurrell said that officer numbers are increasing and more recruits have been making their way through the academy. However, said says that Merseyside still faces the challenge of having less officers now than ten years ago, adding that she frequently has to make the case for more resources from central government.
Ms Spurrell said: "We are seeing officer numbers increase now, so I’m really pleased that we’ve got over 600 new officers coming through the academy - lots of them are going to be out in local communities, so I hope that as soon as they have finished their training, we’ll see more visibility than in recent years.
"But we are still going to be short - around 465 officers on where we were back in 2010. That is still a challenge and that is something that I have to push back on a lot, certainly to the government and the Home Office to say that we still need more, this isn’t enough policing resources. We still have challenges like this where we need more investment so we can ultimately protect communities."
Anyone with information is asked to DM @MerPolCC or call @CrimestoppersUK on 0800 555 111 quoting log 1083 of 22nd August.
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