Reduction in knife-related robberies in UK's high-risk areas
A dedicated police taskforce was set up in October last year focused on seven forces – Metropolitan Police Service, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Avon and Sommerset and British Transport Police.
These areas had seen a steep rise in incidents between July 2023 and June 2024, accounting for 70% of knife-enabled robbery at the time.
Drones, knife arches and detection dogs are among the tactics being used in an attempt to bring down the number of incidents, with the forces also increasing visible patrols and the number of plain clothes officers on the streets.
The West Midlands saw the largest drop, with a 25% reduction in incidents in the past year. Meanwhile, Greater Manchester saw a 4% increase in incidents in comparison to last year.
Ms Cooper said: 'Since day one, we have acted with urgency to turn the tide on knife crime, which destroys lives and devastates communities.
'When we came to office, knife-enabled robbery was increasing at a concerning rate, but we have now started to drive numbers of those offences down through the work of our dedicated taskforces, and as a result, we have also seen the first small reduction in overall knife crime for four years.
'The drop in knife-enabled robbery in key problem areas shows the impact that our strong new action on knife crime is having, but we now need to supercharge these efforts through more smart and targeted interventions.
'Anyone can be a victim of knife crime, but new 'hex mapping' technology shows that the vast majority of knife crime is concentrated in a relatively small, hyper-concentrated number of areas.
'As part of the plan for change, we will use that new technology to support our mission to halve knife crime over the next decade. In the 2020s, the way to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime is also to be smart on crime, using the latest technology to target criminals and problem areas, and keep the country safe.'
A ban on ninja swords also comes into force on Friday, as part of the Government's commitment to halve knife crime in the next decade.
At least a thousand of the weapons have been handed in as part of a surrender scheme.
The Government has also pledged to tackle the sale of weapons online, as part of Ronan's Law, which was introduced following the death of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was murdered with a ninja sword bought online.
This would require retailers to report bulk or suspicious knife orders to the police, put in place more stringent age-verification checks and impose significant fines on tech executives whose platforms fail to prevent illegal sales.
Mother of Ronan, Pooja Kanda, said: 'Ronan was just 16 years old when his life was stolen by a 22-inch ninja sword that should never have been so easy to buy. Ronan's Law is not only a step towards justice for my son, but for every parent who wants to see their child come home safely.
'This law is about saving lives, closing dangerous loopholes, and holding those responsible to account.
'The Government's knife surrender scheme has been a sign of commitment to tackling the scourge of knife crime. While there is still much more to do, these are significant steps in the right direction.'
The Home Office has also said a 'surrender van' will be deployed at this year's Notting Hill Carnival.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said knife crime was 'spiralling out of control' and accused Labour of not wanting to talk about London and the 'utter failure of Sadiq Khan to tackle crime'.
He said: 'Under Labour's Mayor, the capital has become Britain's knife crime capital, accounting for over 32% of all knife crime and over 45% of knife-point robberies in England. Stop and search has collapsed, yet Sadiq Khan spends more time pontificating than trying to make London safe.
'Labour are weak on crime, soft on criminals, and too scared to confront the reality on our streets. It's time for the Labour Government and Labour Mayor to wake up and get a grip, or get out of the way.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
6 hours ago
- Spectator
Portrait of the week: Migrant treaty kicks in, car finance claim kicked out and a nuclear reactor on the moon
Home A treaty with France came into operation by which perhaps 50 small-boat migrants a week could be sent back to France in exchange for asylum seekers in France with family connections to Britain. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, could not say when the returns would begin. The number of migrants arriving in England in small boats in the seven days to 4 August was 1,047; the total for the year reached more than 25,000 at a faster rate than ever. The population of England and Wales rose by 706,881 in a year, the Office for National Statistics estimated, to 61.8 million by June 2024, of which only 29,982 was by natural increase, the rest being net migration. The Guardian reported that 2.99 million of the 6.23 million patients in England awaiting care have not had either their first appointment with a specialist or a diagnostic test since being referred by a GP. The government would miss its borrowing target by £41.2 billion, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research; the answer was to raise taxes. The Supreme Court ruled that millions could not claim compensation for car dealers having received hidden commission from lenders when customers signed up for car finance before 2021. But the court upheld one type of claim, so the Financial Conduct Authority will consult on running a compensation scheme, to cost between £9 billion and £18 billion. The Charity Commission rebuked all parties to a dispute between the Duke of Sussex and the chairwoman of Sentebale, the charity he founded, but found no evidence of systematic 'misogynoir'. Civil service internships will be offered in future only to students from 'lower socio-economic backgrounds', based on the occupations of their parents when the applicant was 14; butchers and dustmen would do, and even train-drivers. LNER warned passengers not to travel north of Newcastle on the day of Storm Floris. A failure at the Swanwick air traffic control centre cancelled hundreds of flights. Heathrow airport said it would spend £49 billion on improvements, including £21 billion on a third runway. Two men appeared in court charged in connection with the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton; Warwickshire Police said: 'Once someone is charged with an offence, we follow national guidance. This guidance does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status.' Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, aged 20, was convicted of assault and actual bodily harm against two policewomen at Manchester airport last year. Tommy Robinson was arrested at Luton airport in connection with an alleged assault at St Pancras station last week. Dame Stella Rimington, the first woman director-general of MI5, died aged 90. Lord Desai, the economist, died aged 85. India won the fifth Test by six runs. Abroad President Donald Trump of the United States enjoyed another bout of throwing tariffs around: 39 per cent for Switzerland, 35 per cent for Canada, 50 per cent for Brazil. He then said he was sacking the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after estimates of job growth in May and June were revised. Mr Trump said two nuclear submarines would 'be positioned in the appropriate regions' in response to 'highly provocative' comments by the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. Mr Trump had said: 'Russia, I think it's disgusting what they're doing,' after more drones and missiles were launched against Ukraine than ever. After street protests, MPs in Ukraine overturned legislation passed a week earlier that had removed the independence of two anti-corruption agencies. A big oil depot fire near Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi was blamed by Moscow on a Ukrainian drone attack. Eight countries of Opec+ (including Russia) agreed to produce more oil. BP announced its biggest discovery in 25 years: an oil and gas field off Brazil. Nasa hatched plans for a nuclear reactor on the moon. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, resolved to reoccupy the Gaza Strip fully. Hamas declared that it would not agree to disarm unless a sovereign Palestinian state was established. Canada said it would recognise Palestine as a state in September. The International Committee of the Red Cross was 'appalled' by videos of two emaciated hostages in Gaza. A boat with 157 migrants from the Horn of Africa sank off the coast of Yemen and only 12 were rescued. The Pope said mass for a million young people at Tor Vergata on the outskirts of Rome. Aalborg Zoo in Denmark appealed for guinea pigs and horses, to feed its lions and tigers. CSH
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- The Guardian
Calls for clarity over whether UK police can release suspects' ethnicity and immigration status
Yvette Cooper is facing demands for clarity over the information that police forces are permitted to release to the public after claims of a 'cover-up' by the authorities over the immigration status of men accused of raping a child. The Warwickshire police and crime commissioner, Philip Seccombe, called for fresh national guidance after police were accused by Reform UK of failing to confirm that two Afghan men being prosecuted for the alleged attack on a 12-year-old girl were asylum seekers. There is increasing pressure on prosecutors and the police to release details about the ethnicity and immigration status of people facing a criminal charge. Cooper, the home secretary, said on Tuesday that the guidance should change to permit police to release the ethnicity or immigration status of criminal suspects but added that she was waiting for a review to be concluded by the Law Commission. Seccombe said: 'Like all forces, Warwickshire police finds itself in a difficult position of trying to carefully balance the legal safeguards which protect the integrity of the judicial process, while maintaining public order and simultaneously ensuring that public confidence is maintained through transparency and honesty. 'Currently police forces are in an invidious position when deciding what can and should be disclosed in sensitive cases, given that the national guidance is silent on both the ethnicity and immigration status of suspects. 'It is very easy to criticise and suggest that the balance of disclosure hasn't been correct, but it is much harder to take these decisions on the ground.' The alleged rape, said to have happened on 22 July, has become the centre of a political storm after the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, on Monday amplified claims of a police cover-up. On Tuesday the leader of Reform-led Warwickshire county council said police were refusing to confirm details of the two suspects charged after the alleged attack in Nuneaton. George Finch, the youngest council leader in England, alleged within days that Ahmad Mulakhil and Mohammad Kabir – the two men charged in the case – were asylum seekers, but police forces do not routinely release the immigration status of suspects. In a letter to Cooper, Finch claimed the police risked 'disorder breaking out on the streets' of the county. Cooper said on Tuesday that 'we do want to see greater transparency' from police forces and she wanted national guidance to change in relation to the release of information about suspects. Mulakhil has been charged with two counts of rape, while Kabir has been charged with kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting of the rape of a girl aged under 13. Both men are in custody and due to appear at Warwick crown court on 26 August. Warwickshire county council's chief executive briefed Finch confidentially about the immigration status of the two men, according to a letter by the force's chief constable, Alex Franklin-Smith. Franklin-Smith said he confirmed to Finch last Thursday that this information was accurate but that 'we wouldn't be releasing immigration status at point of charge as we follow national guidance'. The police chief said he had asked the Home Office to confirm the full immigration status of the two men, given that Finch had released some details publicly. He added: 'I am confident that Warwickshire police has treated this investigation seriously from the outset, working tirelessly to identify, locate, arrest and charge those suspected of being responsible for this awful crime as quickly as possible.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'As the home secretary said yesterday, it has been widely reported that this case involves two Afghan individuals who are in the asylum system, some of which information has already been confirmed in open court. 'The home secretary has made clear that there is a strong public interest in maximum transparency wherever that is possible. 'That is why the Home Office and College of Policing are working together to strengthen and clarify the guidance around how and when information is released.'
The Independent
10 hours ago
- The Independent
ICE wants to target Gen Z in PR blitz including ads on YouTube, HBO and X to fill 14,000 roles
Donald Trump's administration is urgently trying to launch an ad campaign to help recruit more than 14,000 immigration officers who can rapidly remove people from the country, government documents say. Immigration and Customs Enforcement specifically wants to target 'Gen Z and early-career professionals,' as well as former law enforcement officers, military veterans and people from legal fields, according to the agency's request for information, the first step in a government procurement process to begin contracting with eligible firms. ICE wants to reach more than 42 million people in those 'target audience groups' across social media platforms as well as through ads on Hulu, HBO Max and Amazon Prime, among other networks, the pitch says. 'This is a critical priority,' the agency wrote on the government's procurement website. 'ICE has an immediate need to begin recruitment efforts and requires specialized commercial advertising experience, established infrastructure, and qualified personnel to activate without delay.' Marketing firms should be able to zero in on potential recruits through 'geofencing,' which delivers ads based on a viewer's location, as well as 'behavioral' practices, according to the documents, first reported by 404 Media. The effort ties together with the Trump administration's 'national launch and awareness saturation initiative aimed at dominating both digital and traditional media channels with urgent, compelling recruitment messages,' according to the pitch. The Independent has requested comment from ICE. Republicans in Congress earmarked $30 billion for the hiring spree, alongside $45 billion in new funding for ICE detention centers. Altogether, Trump's 'big, beautiful' domestic policy bill sets aside more than $170 billion for immigration enforcement over the next decade. That injection of taxpayer cash makes the law enforcement agency one of the most expensive police forces in the world, outpacing most foreign military budgets. Homeland Security is also advertising a 'maximum $50,000 signing bonus' and student loan forgiveness for new recruits. Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday that she is dropping age limit requirements and allowing people older than 40 to apply, 'so even more patriots will qualify to join ICE in its mission to arrest murderers, pedophiles, gang members, rapists, and other criminal illegal aliens from America's streets,' according to DHS. And people as young as 18 years old can apply, Noem told Fox News Wednesday. ICE is looking to hire more removal officers, Homeland Security Investigations agents, attorneys and other personnel. The pace of daily immigration arrests fell by nearly 20 percent in July following a wave of court challenges, mass protests, and reports suggesting that morale within ICE ranks has been plummeting with officers spending more time 'arresting gardeners' than investigating major crimes. 'It's miserable,' one ICE official told The Atlantic last month. 'It became a contest of how many deportations could be reported to Stephen Miller by December,' added Adam Boyd, an attorney who resigned from the agency's legal department in June. In May, White House adviser Stephen Miller announced on Fox News that the administration had set a goal of arresting 3,000 people a day, and that Trump 'is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day.' But in court filings, government lawyers have denied any such arrest targets. ICE has not been directed to 'meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that ICE or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law,' they wrote to a federal appeals court last week. Between July 1 and 27, ICE averaged 990 daily arrests, down from 1,224 the previous month, according to government data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research project at Syracuse University. ICE is likely to face significant roadblocks in reaching 14,000 new recruits, according to analysts and former law enforcement officials. Without effective guardrails to screen how those agents are hired and who exactly is filling those roles, the government may be setting itself up to repeat critical past mistakes the last time there was a surge in new recruits, experts said. But the agency is growing at such a rate that 'we're going to see an ICE that it is going to be hard for any future administration to shrink,' former acting ICE director Josh Sandweg said earlier this year. The agency's 'capacity to deport will certainly be at the highest level it's ever been in the history of the United States,' he added.
