Crime County ‘still among safest’ despite 395 gun or knife incidents
THE crime of carrying a gun or knife in this county is becoming ever more frequent. In total, 395 gun and knife crime incidents were recorded in Gloucestershire in the last year, equal to at least one incident involving a weapon every day.
The data, supplied by Personalinjury Claimsuk, shows that knife crime is far more prevalent than gun crime, though there were 44 firearms incidents recorded by Gloucestershire Constabulary in the past year. This means that police were called to a gun-related incident every eight days in 2023.
The county’s only city topped the crime rankings for gun and knife crime incidents this year, with 154 offences recorded by the police.
There have been concerted campaigns in the last few years to raise awareness of the issue, including weapon amnesties and the Knife Angel sculpture placed outside Gloucester Cathedral, but the issue persists.
Other data that was released by the Ministry of Justice earlier this year showed that, in the period March 2022 to March 2023, 64 per cent of kniferelated offences were caused by firsttime offenders.
Speaking to our sister website Gloucestershirelive after an incident involving a 10-year-old boy and a knife, Increase the Peace’s Delroy Ellis raised fears that younger and younger people were getting caught up in knife crime.
The police-released data for recorded knife and gun crime incidents in each of the county’s regions show that, after Gloucester, Cheltenham had 89 of these crimes in the period November 2022 to November 2023. While this is lower, it is still a much higher rate of this type of crime than across the more rural parts of Gloucestershire. » Gloucester - 154 » Cheltenham - 89 » Forest - 38 » Tewkesbury - 37 » Stroud - 31 » Cotswolds - 27 » Unclassified - 19 When comparing year-on-year data released by the force, there appears to be an upward trend in recorded offences of possessing a weapon. Comparing October 2022 with October 2023, the number of weapons incidents increased from 28 to 39, an increase of more than a third.
Gloucestershire Police said in a statement: “We understand people’s concerns around this rise although we would stress that Gloucestershire still remains as one of the safest counties to live in. The rise is a societal issue taking place across the country and not something that police can solve alone.
“That’s why we’re addressing it locally with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and agencies and partnerships such as Safer Gloucestershire.
“Our work has included initiatives with reformed knife crime offenders and courts to take the message to vulnerable children, and work with charities to divert those involved into more positive activities.
“We are also providing support for those who may be a victim of crime or could commit crimes and are working hard from an enforcement perspective so that we can bring serious offenders to justice.”