Shropshire Star

Knife crime up 70 per cent in four years in West Mercia

Knife offences in West Mercia have increased by more than two thirds in the last four years, latest figures show.

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Police chiefs have called for emergency funding to halt the surge in knife crime. They met Home Secretary Sajid Javid following a spate of fatal stabbings in different parts of the UK.

West Mercia Police investigated 453 offences involving a knife or a sharp weapon between April 2017 and March 2018, according to the Office for National Statistics.

That is a 70 per cent increase since 2013-14, when there were 267 cases.

There are 36 knife offences per 100,000 people in West Mercia, a figure which is lower than the national average of 69 per 100,000.

Nationally the most common offence involving a knife or sharp object was assault with intent to cause serious harm, followed by robbery.

Shropshire's crime commissioner and a senior police officer responded to the latest figures by urging people not to "lose sight of the fact that West Mercia continues to be a comparatively safe place to live".

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion and local policing chief Superintendent Tom Harding said they are committed to ensuring people are protected from knife crime.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion

Mr Campion also spoke of how knife crime in West Mercia is around half the national average, which in turn is lower than that being experienced in hot spots such as Birmingham and London.

Government figures have shown knife offences in the region have increased by more than two thirds in the last four years.

Mr Campion said: "Recording of knife crime has increased significantly nationwide in recent years. Much of this is down to improvements to police recording practices, as well as genuine changes in crime and society.

“Policing is only one part of this issue. I have increased officer numbers in West Mercia to provide greater capacity to our force and to improve officer visibility in our communities.

"However, this is not an issue we can simply ‘police’ our way out of. Patterns of crime are about our society as a whole and where knife crime is concerned we, as a society, have a collective part to play in tackling the root causes of the problem.

“Rates of knife crime where we live are around half the national average. We are not complacent and I will continue to work with the police and other partners to do everything possible to tackle all forms of violent crime, but we must also not lose sight of the fact that West Mercia continues to be a comparatively safe place to live.”

Superintendent Tom Harding

Superintendent Harding said the force takes the issue "very seriously", and has introduced a special pilot project in Telford specialising on early intervention.

He explained that the force works hard to educate young people about the dangers of carrying knives.

He said: "We recognise how deeply concerning recent reports of knife crime in other parts of the country may be to our local communities and, while we do not have the same level of incidents involving knives as experienced in other towns and cities, we do take the issue very seriously.

“Looking at the local picture and what these figures mean to our local communities in Shropshire, we did see a slight rise in Telford in 2017/18 compared to the previous year but in the rest of the county, in contrast to the national trend, there was a considerable fall of 25 per cent.

“However, we will never be complacent about incidents involving knives and right across the areas covered by West Mercia work is carried out tackle this issue.

“We know the majority of knife related incidents involve young people carrying knives which is why we work very closely with other agencies to educate young people around the dangers of carrying a knife.

“Our Youth Engagement Teams work with local schools to deliver awareness assemblies, we carry out test purchases at stores selling knives to make sure they are not selling knives to anyone under 18 and we carry out community sweeps in key areas to identify and remove any sharp items or knives.

Intervention

“Early intervention is crucial and we have recently launched a new Youth Knife Crime Intervention programme which is being piloted in Telford. The programme sees us work with a range of professionals, such as West Midlands Ambulance Service and the local authority, to deliver workshops to young people at risk of becoming involved in knife crime.

"It provides help and support at an early stage not just to the young person but their family too.

“It’s important we all work together to tackle knife crime and we would always encourage anyone who has any concerns to report these to us.”

Across England and Wales, the number of fatal stabbings hit the highest level since comparable records began, more than 70 years ago.

Sarah Thornton , the chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said emergency funding was needed to tackle rising knife crime.

“It needs some emergency funding. We need to have more officer hours on the streets," she said.

“We just haven't got the capacity. We just haven't got the officers at the moment so we need some money now to pay for overtime and to pay for mutual aid between forces."

Ms Thornton said tackling knife crime should also involve "local authorities, health, education, parents and families".

Referring to the Prime Minister's rejection of a link between less policing and more knife crime, she added: "Look at the facts, there are fewer police officers doing less policing and there's more crime."

In West Mercia, officer numbers have dropped by 17 per cent over the last decade.

Home Office data shows the force had 1,922 officers in September last year, compared with 2,303 in September 2010.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion is in the process of recruiting another 215 officers for the force.

Across England and Wales, the number of police officers has dropped by almost 20,000 since 2010.

Following the meeting with police, the Home Secretary said: "I think police resources are very important to deal with this. We've got to do everything we can.

"I'm absolutely committed to working with the police in doing this. We have to listen to them when they talk about resources."

Mr Javid also said he wanted the police to have "more confidence" in using stop-and-search.

The Prime Minister announced she would be holding a summit to explore "what more we can do as a whole society to tackle" knife crime.