Alarm as knife and gun crime soars
POLICE chiefs vowed to crack down yesterday as it was revealed knife and gun crimes are surging.
Knife attacks are up 14 per cent over the past year, reversing a previous downward trend. Gun crime is up 13 per cent. But Chief Constables in England and Wales must tackle the surge while facing yet more budget cuts.
There were 11.5 million crimes in the past year, said the Office for National Statistics [ONS].
But if fraud and computer misuse are omitted, the total is 6.1 million, not a “statistically significant” change from 2015, the ONS said. The 1995 peak was 19 million. But police said the latest knife and gun crime increases were causes for concern.
Chief Constable Bill Skelly, national police lead for crime recording, said: “Forces will continue to target habitual offenders and conduct wide-ranging proactive operations to seize thousands of illegal weapons before they can be used to cause harm.”
The figures are worse in London, where knife crime rose by 24 per cent and gun crime by 42 per cent.
A 17-year-old boy and two men were stabbed to death in the capital last weekend alone.
A breakdown of violent crime showed the toll of sex attacks using knives rose by around 20 per cent. Robbery was also up by 14 per cent.
Police Federation chairman Steve White said: “These figures reflect real crimes affecting real people, all of which need investigating by an ever reducing number of officers.”