Knifing epidemic
Violent crime tops 1.3m as knife rate hits record levels
KNIFE crime rocketed by nearly a quarter last year to the highest rate since records began.
Police recorded almost 40,000 knife offences in 2017 – nearly five an hour on average.
That was up 22% on 2016, when 32,468 were recorded, and is the highest number registered since comparable records started in 2010.
The figures piled pressure on under-fire Home Secretary Amber Rudd, amid a rise in violent crime after years of Tory cuts to police forces and youth services.
It came as Scotland Yard admitted a third of murders in the capital last year remain unsolved.
Only 66.67% of them resulted in charges, down from 78.22% the previous year, according to figures from the Metropolitan Police yesterday. Before that the rate had consistently been over 90% since 1999, when it was 84%.
Increases in homicide, robbery and “high-harm” violent offences were also recorded by forces in England and Wales. Firearm offences were up 11% to 6,604.
Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh lashed ministers for “creating the conditions for crime to thrive”.
She said: “The Home Secretary has comprehensively failed to protect the public. Our communities are now exposed and we’ve a Government unwilling or unable to put it right.”
Duncan Ball, knife crime lead of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “I don’t think it’s directly linked to drop in [police] officer numbers. However, if you had more officers clearly you could have greater presence on the streets in certain areas.”
A lack of youth services “potentially deprives us of opportunities to create diversions” away from knife crime, he said. Last year £416million was spent on youth services, down from £622million three years ago, official figures show.
The number of homicides rose by 54, or 9%, to a total of 653, when cases linked to the Hillsborough disaster and the 2017 terror attacks were excluded.
There were 1.3 million crimes in the “violence against the person” category – a rise of a fifth on the previous year. Overall 5.4 million offences were recorded, a 13% year-on-year rise.
Recorded burglaries and robberies were up 9% and 33% respectively.
Those killed in this year’s knife crime epidemic include Daniel Frederick, 34, in Hackney, East London on January 8, Harry Uzoka, 25, in Shepherd’s Bush, West London on January 11 and Israel Ogunsola, 18, in Hackney on April 8. The family of law student Sami Sidhom, 18, stabbed to death outside his home in Forest Gate, East London, said this week: “Those responsible for enforcing the banning of knives in our streets are responsible for his death.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “Crime, and violent crime in particular, is rising at an unacceptably high rate across England and Wales, including London. “This is clearly a national problem that requires national solutions from the Government.”
The public are exposed & ministers are unable or unwilling to fix it LOUISE HAIGH SHADOW POLICING MINISTER