More police needed to combat knife epidemic
TOP COP CALLS FOR CRISIS CASH
POLICE chiefs last night called for an emergency cash boost to tackle the knife crime epidemic.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday held a summit with chief constables to discuss the growing crisis.
And he risked the wrath of Prime Minister Theresa May by seeming to disagree with her suggestion that police cutbacks had not played a part in the problem.
Mr Javid said: “I think police re- sources are very important to deal with this. We’ve got to do everything we can.”
Sara Thornton, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, called for emergency money for more police officers on the beat.
She said: “It needs some emergency funding. We need to have more officer-hours on the streets.
“We just haven’t got the capacity, we just haven’t got the officers at the moment so we need some mon- ey now to pay for overtime to pay for mutual aid between forces.
“We think it needs to be treated as if it was an emergency.’’
She also called for longer-term investment in manpower adding: “Look at the facts, there are fewer police officers doing less policing and there’s more crime.”
Her plea came on the day a man believed to be in his mid-20s was stabbed to death in Leyton, east London. He is the 21st person killed this year in the capital. STABBING SUMMIT: Javid