Knife crime in London has been reduced by more than 11 percent as a result of the Met’s Operation Blunt 2, according to figures released to mark the first anniversary of the operation.
Blunt 2 has seen officers engage in pro-active and targeted operations operations to arrest those carrying knives and engage with communities to stem the level of violence.
Commander Mark Simmons, head of Blunt 2, said: “We targeted the dangerous places where knife crime is most prevalent and young people are most concerned. Stop and search has helped create the environment where the carrying of knives is now less common than when we started. Seizures are substantially down despite maintaining the high level of activity. Officers carried out 287,898 stops and searches since May last year.
“Other tactics include the use of search arches and weapon sweeps. Overall 5,480 knives have been recovered and more than 10,200 people arrested.
“We have carefully planned the policing response at those events where historically youth violence has occurred – these include fairs, public entertainment events and so on.
“And we have put a significant amount of effort into policing safe routes home after school because again historically the after-school period saw a peak in knife crime and youth violence.
“We have maintained engagement with communities across London to ensure that our tactics are understood and have the support of the communities we are seeking to protect. The message we are continuing to get is clear – that we do have that support and that, providing we exercise our powers appropriately, stop and search is supported as a key tactic in delivering the safer environment that everyone wants. This was reaffirmed in February in an extensive process of consultation that led to 755 engagements in schools and more than 120 operations in which community observers took part.
Commander Mark Simmons added: “There is much that we have achieved since the start of Blunt 2. However, we are not complacent. We said at the start that we were in this for the long haul and we remain determined to continue for as long as necessary in our efforts to reduce the risk of knife crime and serious youth violence in London
Stop and search proceeduers carried out in a polite manner with an explanation to the person stopped and an apology if no crime has been established is an essential part of policing today.
Commander Mark Simmons and his officers are to be congratulated on providing a safer community.
Ken,
I would agree…..if that’s what was really going on out there.
I have never been stopped by the Police in London, despite carrying a rucksack on the tube every Thursday. However I have seen many others being stopped and searched. The difference? – I am a white male and nearly everyone I see stopped is not.
The stats in this report are Bogus – how can you arrest 10,000 people for carrying knives and yet only recover 5,000 knives?
This would imply half the people arrested weren’t even carrying a knife – so why do they come under the heading of ‘knife crime figures’? What was their crime? and how many actually ended in successful prosecution?
Is this yet more manipulation of the facts by the Met in order to demonstrate a success that isn’t there?
I would also point out that only 3% of people stopped actually end up getting arrested – and only 1.9% were even carrying a knife!
I wouldn’t be so quick to congratulate anybody for this yet. Considering it’s potentially alienating 97% of the people being stopped – this is actually causing more harm than good – whether it’s done in a polite manner or not.
As a Criminologist you should know the only way to stop violent crime is to tackle the root of the problem. Most knife crime is carried out by young people who have told themselves they have nothing to loose. Whether they have or not is a debate, but this is what happens. The broken family structure and the lack of rules in their lives is what creates an attitude of ‘so what’. The desperation to belong to something is so strong they hang around in gangs to replace the missing family and community structure.
If you knew what it’s like to be brought up on some of the roughest council estates in London then you would realise why prison actually becomes an attractive prospect – making it a win / win situation for the youths involved (in their eyes).
Sadly no-one over the age of 25 seems to understand this and the tendancy is to tackle the symptoms of the problem and not the causes.
This is why you will never stop knife crime in London by using stop and search methods. It didn’t work before, and it’s not going to work now.
Take my advice – get a copy of Grand Theft Auto and you will see where the youth of today get their ideas from. Stashing weapons in locations (to avoid police detection) that can be retrieved later is a big feature of this game – and it’s being mimicked in real life – thereby reducing the effectivenes of stop and search.
“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles” – SunTzu Art of War