Knife crime in the Oswestry borough has doubled over the last year - but Shrewsbury remains Shropshire’s hotspot for incidents outside Telford, new figures reveal.
Officers across the county also confiscated 346 knives between July last year and June, although crime involving the weapons across the West Mercia force area in 2007/08 accounted for less than one per cent of all recorded crime.
The statistics, revealed by West Mercia Constabulary, show 18 knife crimes were reported in the Oswestry borough in 2007/8, all but four of which resulted in charges being brought.
The year before, there were nine such incidents, two-thirds of which did not end in charges.
The Shrewsbury area again recorded the highest level of knife crime this year, with a total of 39 incidents, all but three of which were in the town itself.
That figure was much the same as last year’s.
There were 13 knife incidents in the North Shropshire district this year, compared with 14 last year, and there were seven in the south of the county, exactly the same as in 2006/07.
Corresponding figures for Bridgnorth district showed a fall from 16 to 10 this year, eight of which did not end in charges being brought.
Overall for the county, there were 50 successful prosecution for crimes involving knives in 2007, compared with 71 in 2004 and nine in 1998. The prosecutions in 2007 involved people aged from 14 to 25.
West Mercia Police spokesman Richard Ewels said: “The number of incidents in Shropshire remains relatively low.”
Borough remains a weapons hotspot after nearly 40 reports
Shrewsbury remains a hotspot for incidents of knife crime with nearly 40 reports recorded already this year, figures revealed today.Statistics released by West Mercia Constabulary also show officers across Shropshire confiscated 346 knives between July last year and June.
But crime involving the weapons across the West Mercia force area in 2007/08 accounted for less than one per cent of all recorded crime.
All but three of the incidents in Shrewsbury took place in the town itself and the figure is much the same as 2007.
Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury, said he believed there should be more funding for police in Shropshire to allow a bigger presence on the streets in a bid to prevent people carrying and using knives.
He said: “The West Mercia Police association is the lowest funded police authority in the country. We have nothing like the level of policing that other parts of the country get and that is wrong and is leading to less of a police presence on the street.
“The police do a great job but this is a growing problem.”
24 Comments
oh come off it, will the press stop going on about knives, this is rediculous, shropshire is as safe as houses
were they confiscated from fisherman , tradesman etc or some one out on the town carrying a knife to use or for protection , i think this whole knife thing is silly, and a red herring ok some people have been stabbed but it is a city problem the knife amnesty had to be the biggest joke going.
don’t underestimate the amount of young people carrying knives in the town.As a parent, and having worked with young people, I am very aware that this is a serious problem, especially with teenage males.
It is not just a city problem, and after dark, Shrewsbury is not the pretty town of flowers you see in the daylight.I’ve lived in London, and was never attacked there.However, I have been here.
I agree with Saire. Experience shows that Shrewsbury and it’s environs are not immune to the violent and disrespectful youth culture which is now endemic across the nation. As the article says, 39 knife incidents were actually recorded in Shrewsbury this year and it’s only August! Recorded incidents are usually far less than the real total, so wake up - we do have a problem.
see - we need to bring back hanging!!
surely Shrewsbury should now have a curfew of 7pm for under 18’s!!!
typical shropshire star , up there with the daily mail, always hyping stuff up, there is no crime in shropshrie its idillic, find something else to panic about public
love and peace man, these children need hugs not harshness, lets all put down the guns and have a group hug guys there’s no need to fight
beware statistics, they can be very misleading, atleast they are counting them now
No crime in Shropshire? Excuse me, but I think you only need to go to the courts one day to see that there is!
There is no doubt that some parts of Shropshire are beautiful, but nowhere is perfect.
We have theft, burglary, knife crime, football hooliganism, rape, robbery, fraud, etc etc etc, just as everywhere else does.
Nobody is suggesting we need panic, but we do need to be aware and we do need to tackle the problems before they escalate.
the statistics can be very misleading, its good if the police aer detecting more crime, but this doesnt mean life is moer dangerous, just that they are being more effective, shrewsbury is a VERY safe town, by national or international standards, by any measure, you are less likely to experience crime in shrewsbury that pretty much anywhere on the planet, be glad you live in such a tranquil lovely place, you could have been born in Lagos, Rio, Cape Town or worse still Telford
Nowere is perfect, Instead, complaining or reporting and posting useless stat’s how about doing something instead.
clearly i blame the government for this, it all started with bliar being soft on criminals, this is typical of socialists who are too soft generally and fluffy and caring, you need tough old heads to fight crime, not namby pampy commies in power, lets get a right wing government in, bring back hanging, conscription, expel all the foreigners, bring back the cane, cut off everyones benefits, close all the job centres, hospitals, schools, swimming baths, have every man for himself with unlimited police powers of stop, search, beating if needs be, and lets give tax breaks to businesses, and arm the police with proper guns not silly tasers, and then you will see crime go down then
Joey Knig.. ’socialists’ is if! that’s taters, these lot hold Thatcherite social policies (with slightly softer edges).
I noticed one area went down (no mention of Telford yet though) but why didn’t the paper headline on the reduction in that area - do some In-Depth journalism on why that area went down? Not just Sun-type boil-in-bag precis.
i agree with joey we need to stamp out crime with ruthless zero tolerance policing, not this soft labour approach of helping families with councilling and housing and benefits etc, i dont care how poor or deprived you are there is no excuse for crime and if you offend you should be locked up for a long time period
panic!!!! Lock up your daughters, the kids all have guns and knives, the end of the world is nigh!!! fortunately i dont real the daily mail, or the shropshire star for that matter so I am not concerned by such mischevious speculation
This is all a load of tosh, shropshire has never been safer, stop scaring the old folk with your silly headlines
if they have knives im getting myself a gun, lets start an arms race
I think Joey was being a bit tongue in cheek.
An accurate round fired by Tank, there!
Once again, it’s not the crime but the fear of it. How many of you have been the witness or victim of knife crime ? The media are loving every moment of it because it sells newspapers and creates an atmosphere of panic. If not already, the grubby tabloids will start a ‘Campaign against knife crime’ in an effort to increase their sales, they are not interested in the outcome, just sales figures. I have not bought or read a national tabloid for years, they are just propaganda merchants.
utter bunk, designed to sell papers, and spread fear, not helpful at all
are we having a silly name competitions??
lets melt down the knives to make scrap metal it must be so valuable that it would be a good way to have a knife amnesty, getting 20 quid per knife like!
like the bible, making ploughs from swords, bring peace and good will to all men, aw aint life sweet