Knife crime rate alarming

BOTH letters from London Assembly members Onkar Sahota and Tony Devenishin Gazette (February 21) respectively highlight the importance of tackling rising knifecrime and the folly of police mergers in west London at present.

In London in 2017 there have been 12 ,980 knife crimes and 37, 443 reports of knife crime in the UK, which is a 21% annual rise in these statistics. More alarming is that in west London 40% of the knife crimes are carried out by youngsters between the age of 10 and 19 years. With the policing Command area mergers that have been set up in the boroughs of Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow recently, due to reductions in the London policing budget, there is obviously a serious public safety issue to address.

Mr Devenish is right to question the wisdom of this merger. I am questioning it too. Mr Sahota talks of Mayor Khan having to make £325 million of savings over the next few years. This should not be allowed to happen. The reductions have been forced on Mayor Khan. But in the wake of freakish, dangerous public safety concerns and the horrific daily knife killings and knife related atrocities, particularly the awful Camden killings last week, our leaders in parliament need a firm and renewed resolve to understand, act and deliver support for the beleaguered mayor.

Education and a ‘complex and nuanced approach’ is fine. But more funds are required. Also, public involvement in helping to understand why these terrible crimes are still happening and measures taken so that they never happen again.

I suggest a public debate involving the police, community leaders, ward councillors, London Assembly members, teachers, parents and interested parties. We must try to get to grips with this. Merging police forces simply reduces street by street control of the problem. Ian Herne Hillingdon