WEST MIDLANDS Police has been praised for its work to drive down knife crime.
The force said crime involving under-25s where a knife has been used to threaten or hurt someone has fallen by 15 per cent since April 1 on on top of an 18 per cent reduction throughout the whole of 2024/5.
It added there has also been a reduction in the number of robberies where knives are used.
The Government set up a dedicated police taskforce across seven forces last October to tackle knife robberies.
And the West Midlands has seen a drop of more than 25 per cent, the biggest drop of all seven forces.
In the West Midlands, efforts have been focused on carrying out repeated patrols in hotspot areas identified by police studying crime trends and intelligence.
The dedicated Project Guardian Taskforce sees teams across the force carrying out high-visibility policing alongside plain clothes work by officers trained to detect suspicious behaviour in people who may be carrying weapons.
The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, visited Birmingham city centre, where she saw Project Guardian at work, and heard first hand from officers on the frontline.
Ms Cooper thanked officers for their efforts and said the force’s results were ‘really impressive’.
She said: “These are devasting crimes that really destroy families and we need to make sure we keep up this progress.”
Chief Constable Craig Guildford: “We’ve seen some impressive reductions in knife crime, which has the real-world impact of fewer lives being lost , and fewer families and communities being torn apart.
“While it’s certainly pleasing, there’s still a huge amount of work for policing and wider society to do to tackle this problem.
“It’s part of our ongoing commitment to make the West Midlands a safer place for everyone.”
