WEST MIDLANDS Police believe that a knife surrender last summer and their continuing efforts to warn young people about the dangers of carrying a weapon are behind an 11 per cent drop in offences from 2014 to 2015.
Latest statistics show that there were 809 knife crimes recorded across the region between April 2014 and March 2015 – 103 less compared to the same time period in the previous year.
Official crime statistics also show West Midlands Police bucked the national trend of a small rise in overall knife crime, by recording a fall in offences of almost six per cent between 2013/14 and 2014/15, decreasing from 1647 to 1550 crimes.
Knife crime in the West Midlands has dropped steadily over the last decade, with levels falling to less than half of what they were.
Detective Inspector Nick Dale, the force’s lead for knife crime, said the force was particularly pleased to see this reduction in knife-point robberies as it shows fewer criminals are taking weapons onto our streets, meaning our communities are safer.
He added: “This, against a backdrop of an overall fall in offences, shows our partnership approach towards tackling knife crime is working.
“Last summer, we supported the Police and Crime Commissioner and Birmingham City Council as they placed eight knife bins across Birmingham and Wolverhampton to reduce the number of bladed weapons on our streets.
“As part of our ‘Knives end Lives’ campaign, we have ploughed significant resources into educating youngsters about the dangers of and consequences of carrying a knife.
“Educational packages are delivered at schools in this region from Years 5 and 6 and our hard-hitting presentation ‘de-glamourising’ gang culture has reached in excess of 50,000 students.
“However, we are not complacent and we will continue to build on this hard work in a bid to achieve further reductions and rid our streets of the devastation of knife crime.”
