Knife crime rises by 30 per cent and robbery up by a fifth in West Mercia

Newly-released figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveal that robbery reports also rose by a fifth in the year ending June 2019, although most other kinds of theft saw a decrease from last year.

The data shows that 578 crimes reported between July 2018 and June 2019 involved a knife, a 30 per cent increase on the 444 reported in the preceding 12-month period.

That represents a bigger increase percentage-wise than almost anywhere in England and Wales over the same period, although the actual number of crimes it relates to is lower than in many more urbanised areas.

It means that crimes involving knives made up four per cent of crimes reported in the region that year.

In Dyfed-Powys Police's area, knife crime rose by 45 per cent, from 174 to 253.

In the West Midlands, knife crime reports rose by 20 per cent in the same period, though this related to much higher figures – a rise from 2,965 to 3,560.

There were 80,542 violent crimes in that area, including 53 murders.

Violence

In all 86,854 crimes were reported to West Mercia Police in the year to June 2019, covering all crime other than fraud.

Of these 31,810 were categorised as 'violence against the person', including stalking and harassment, as well as death or serious injury caused by unlawful driving.

There were 14 murders in the area, and 10,346 incidents of violence causing injury.

Crimes in this category rose by 14 per cent on last year according to the ONS figures.

In addition 8,807 cases of stalking and harassment were reported in the area, an increase of 33 per cent on the previous year.

Possession of weapons offences rose by 23 per cent, with 884 reports recorded.

Reports of robbery also rose by 20 per cent, and sexual offences by four per cent.

31,584 offences of theft, not including robbery, were reported. This marked a fall of three per cent on last year, including a fall in bicycle theft by seven per cent.

Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia John Campion said: “West Mercia Police was recently commended for its good work in crime recording, and for the confidence our communities have in reporting.

"This is again reflected in today’s figures. There continue to be notable successes, following proactive work around burglary, theft, vehicle offences, criminal damage and drug offences, however there are clear areas we can build upon, and I will continue to hold the force to account to ensure new and emerging trends can be tackled.”