Police chief faces questions over knife crime rise

THE sharp rise in knife crime and youth violence in London was discussed by Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday December 27.

Metropolitan Police figures show recorded knife crimes in the capital have risen by 24% in the past year.

From April 2015 to April 2016 there were a total of 9,742 knife crimes recorded in the capital.

From April 2016 to April 2017 the number of knife crimes recorded had risen to 12,074.

When quizzed by Today Programme host Justin Webb on the issue of rising knife crime and youth violence in London, Commissioner Dick said: “We have a significant issue in London now with knife crime and some of that is gang related, but a lot of it isn’t. We’ve got a lot of knife carrying in the capital and we are bearing down on it very hard.

“We have taken thousands and thousands of knives off the streets.

“We are doing stop and search and we’re doing it in an intelligent way – we are stopping and searching people we know are prolific knife carriers.”

She said the Met was increasingly working with communities to “get into schools and to educate about knife crime prevention from an early age”.

She added: “I think in London we have a cohort of young people for whom violence has become a way of life from really quite young.

“We are very serious about enforcement. Enforcement alone will never solve the problem, but it is my job to try to keep the public safe. It is my job to take knives off the streets and occasionally it will be my job to lock up offenders, including young offenders.”

When asked about her proposal of harsher sentences for young knife crime offenders, she said: “Figures suggest that short sentences are not particularly effective in terms of rehabilitation – they don’t give a young person the chance to change their life.”

She said that while police resources were currently stretched, tackling knife crime and youth violence was a “high priority” for the Met.

Quizzed on the recent collapse of several sexual offences cases due to the late disclosure of evidence by the Met, she said: “The issue of disclosure is getting more complex in the digital age, that’s not just in sexual offenses but in fraud and other cases.

“That is why the Attorney General has taken on a much broader review of the whole criminal justice system.”