With a strong will, we can beat knife crime

For once, I agree with Boris Johnson. The police can’t end the violence without stop-and-search

Fourteen years ago, on the day I stepped down as home secretary, we held a round table on the growing problem of knife crime. The issue was rightly in the public eye, but we had learnt lessons from two previous surges of criminality.

The first of these was an upsurge in street crime involving muggings, theft and sometimes worrying violence. The second, and more serious, was a big rise in the use of guns, mainly associated with drug gangs. We were successful in dealing with these challenges because we not only put immediate extra resources at the disposal of the police, but drew together, on a regular basis, all the agencies involved in tackling this scourge. That meant a fortnightly round table in Downing Street, where people got the message that, from the prime minister downwards, there was a determination to take practical steps and also to make very clear that we were not going to tolerate this.

The process involved everyone. We talked and listened to head teachers, at the centre of communities most affected. We required schools to install metal detectors and, with the help of neighbourhood policing, to supervise children on their way home. We appealed to magistrates and district judges to send out the right signals by providing the maximum sentences for those carrying knives (and guns). The Crown Prosecution Service took the risk of going through with prosecutions, even when a neighbourhood remained silent. And church leaders and youth workers worked with families, helping turn around the behaviour of those who could so often be clearly identified before the calamity occurred.

Within six months, we had reduced street crime in London by 50 per cent and prevented it cascading into other major urban areas.

The lessons learnt from this experience are fairly obvious. It took all those with a part to play to get a grip. This was equally true of the very serious issue of the use of guns. Again, this was not about one agency (although the Metropolitan Police played an important part in what became Operation Trident), but about communities who were most affected being willing to respond – from the black churches, to mothers coming together to demand a change in behaviour from their partners or sons, through to a genuine effort to listen to and engage with the young people concerned. This was about responding as well as enforcing. With that experience in mind, I have one or two thoughts as to how we could tackle the current scourge of knife crime.

First, the authorities must involve all parts of the community. Only when copycat action is stamped on within the family and the immediate neighbourhood will the police be able to do their job and tackle the organised gangs and serial criminals who are so often the trigger for the tragic loss of life. There is a real possibility for women to become the key driver in changing behaviour. I’m prepared to mention the role of women – and take some flak for doing so – because in the end, it’s not girls who are wielding knives, but it’s mothers and sisters who are so often the bereaved.

And these are the people who most want to see change. The mothers of victims who came to see me as home secretary, who set up organisations like Mothers Against Guns, were very clear. They didn’t want us to feel sorry for the perpetrators, but to protect the innocent from sheer, mindless thuggery. I imagine it is much the same today.

Secondly, while of course I would like more investment in youth provision, let us be clear: it isn’t the lack of a youth club that promotes carrying or using a knife. It isn’t because young people are in a pupil referral unit that leads them to want to hurt or kill someone of their own age facing very similar challenges. We need to get real. Readers of this newspaper may be surprised to learn that, for once, I agree with Boris Johnson when he says how important it is to increase powers under stop-and-search which sadly, some six years ago, were relaxed. I can’t see how you can stop someone carrying a knife if you can’t search them for one. Stop-and-search, used intelligently and with, instead of targeted at, the communities most affected, has to be a prime enforcement tool, just to get that grip which makes it possible to implement other measures.

The crucial role of the police, and the much-maligned community support officers, is to be literally there on the street – to understand the community, to be able to separate out the really dangerous from the gullible and naive. They must have strength in resolve and numbers but also the sensitivity to avoid “them and us” syndrome, when the police become the enemy rather than the protector.

Complex challenges require complex solutions. But we have turned things around before, and we can do it again – as long as there is the tough will to do so. In this way we can inoculate ourselves against the virus currently bedevilling our country.

David Blunkett was home secretary between 2001 and 2004