Dedicated team makes inroads into knife crime
FALL IN OFFENCES ACROSS THE COUNTY
KNIFE crime has started to fall in Nottinghamshire, with fewer offences than neighbouring counties.
New figures released by the Office for National Statistics shows Nottinghamshire is no longer the knife crime capital of the East Midlands.
Leicestershire now has the most recorded incidents involving a knife.
Nottinghamshire’s chief constable says that having two dedicated knife crime teams has helped reduce the figures.
The aim of the teams is to stop and disrupt those who carry knives on the city’s streets.
An extra sergeant and six police constables were added to the teams this week.
Police say there is a link between drug dealing and carrying knives for protection, with criminals finding new ways to hide their weapons from officers on patrol.
This includes buying Tasers disguised as mobile phones from the internet.
Crooks are also encouraging young women and children as young as 13 to carry them on their behalf so if caught they can’t be prosecuted.
Some are even hiding them under wheelie bins and behind fences near drug deals to avoid being caught with them.
Another tactic criminals are using is carrying Stanley and craft knives and telling officers they have just “laid a carpet at a friend’s house”.
New figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that knife and sharp instrument offences have fallen.
There were 771 incidents recorded in the year ending September 2020 compared to 806 the year before.
But the 2020 figures are now showing Nottinghamshire improving compared to both Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
Leicestershire is the highest now with 889 incidents followed by Derbyshire with 835 recorded incidents.
In Northamptonshire there were 618.
Lincolnshire has the lowest number of knife offences with 283 reports.
There have been 429 assaults with injury and assaults with intent to cause serious harm in Nottinghamshire, fewer than both Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
There have been 254 robberies involving a knife in Nottinghamshire, down from 304, with Leicestershire being the highest in the East Midlands with 274 reports.
There have been three murders involving knives in Nottinghamshire in the year ending September 2020, with Leicestershire being the highest with seven.
There have been four attempted murders and 76 threats to kill in Nottinghamshire as well.
Nottinghamshire Chief Constable Craig Guildford said: “Our relentless work to tackle knife crime and serious violence goes on all year round.
“I’m pleased the knife crime team has made such big inroads in tackling and reducing knife and drug-related crime over the last year, with a number of significant arrests and seizures.
“We have the only dedicated knife crime team outside of London, which uses intelligence to target those who we know are likely to be carrying knives, and now we have added even more strength to the team to help tackle the issue and make it clear that carrying knives on our streets will simply not be tolerated.” Last year, the knife crime team arrested 276 people, carried out 485 drug seizures, and it has seized 450 weapons since 2016.
Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping said: “Our readiness to invest in a dedicated knife crime
Our relentless work to tackle knife crime and serious violence goes on all year round
Chief Constable Craig Guildford