Police figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that forces in England and Wales are on course to record a total of 38,000 serious knife crimes this year – more than 100 a day.
The figure is at least two-thirds higher than last year’s total of 22,151 offences, announced by the Home Office in July when it unveiled its first annual count of knife crimes.
The sharp rise has come about because ministers have changed the counting rules, in response to complaints that key categories of crime were excluded from last year’s total.
As a result, this year’s statistics will not be directly comparable with last year’s. Critics said this defeated the purpose of introducing the knife crime count, which was intended to allow police to monitor year-on-year trends.
Ian Johnston, president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said: “Knife crime is a major challenge for the police service.
“In order to address this challenge we need to have credible and meaningful statistics relating to the number of offences where a knife has been used.
“It is of serious concern that the count introduced by the Home Office to record year-on-year changes has been changed after one year, and it questions whether ministers consulted widely enough before introducing the categories.”
Filed under: Abusing the System, Law & Order | Tagged: Abusing the System, Government, Knife Crime, Police
