Parents across Bedfordshire are being urged to speak openly with their children about knife crime, online exploitation and county lines activity as police warn the issue “thrives” when families do not talk about it.
Bedfordshire Police is carrying out a week of action focused on knife crime prevention, enforcement and education across the county, with officers conducting weapon sweeps, school visits, test purchasing operations and high-visibility patrols.
But superintendent Thomas Stean, Bedfordshire Police’s lead for knife crime, said the long-term solution was not simply about arrests or the confiscation of weapons.
Instead, he said the key was prevention, education and helping parents understand the risks facing young people online and in the community.
“Exploitation thrives with people not talking about it, with people not understanding it,” he said.
“People don’t think it’s going to be their child involved in these incidents, and hopefully it won’t be.
“But county lines are out there, and exploitation is out there. It’s about encouraging people to come together, talk about it and have those difficult conversations with their children.”
Week of action
Activities taking place across Bedfordshire this week include weapon sweeps to locate hidden knives before they can be used.
Stean explained that some young people avoid carrying knives directly because they know they could be arrested if stopped by police.
Instead, weapons are sometimes hidden in parks, alleyways or other known locations.
“With analytical data, we try to identify where these spots are to do various weapon sweeps to locate those weapons before they’re used to harm anyone,” he said.
The force is also carrying out test purchasing operations to check whether shops are illegally selling knives to underage customers, alongside warrants, partnership activity and educational sessions in schools.
A FazAmnesty knife surrender van is also visiting Luton as part of the week’s activity.
However, Stean stressed that the work was not limited to occasional campaigns.
“This isn’t just activity we do during weeks of action,” he said, “It’s activity we do throughout the year.”
‘Not My Child’
The superintendent said one of the biggest challenges remained convincing parents that exploitation and knife crime could affect any family.
He pointed to Bedfordshire Police’s growing “Not My Child” events, which bring together police, schools and partner organisations to educate parents about knife crime, county lines and online exploitation.
“We now have over 22 partners that come to that event, and on average, we have around 100 parents attending,” he said.
“That’s where those parents are educated on online knife crime, online social media, and they hear lived experiences.
“‘Not My Child’ is designed to empower parents to understand the issue and understand that potentially it could be their child.”
The sessions also help parents understand how to begin difficult conversations with children about social media, peer pressure and exploitation.
“I think that’s the difficulty parents have sometimes, how they approach their children for those conversations,” Mr Stean said.
Online influence
The superintendent warned that many adults underestimate the amount and type of online content children are exposed to.
“Children these days definitely have access to a lot more online content than I did when I was their age,” he said.
“Snapchat and Telegram and all the other things kids use, the stuff they can see, I think we underestimate what they see online.”
He said early intervention was therefore crucial.
Bedfordshire Police has invested in virtual reality technology and educational campaigns designed to show young people how exploitation can develop.
The force’s “Lost Boys” campaign uses VR headsets to immerse young people in the story of a child being drawn into exploitation and county lines activity.
“We’ve invested heavily in the VR headsets and the Lost Boys campaign film,” Stean said, “It’s really impactful for young people watching the whole story of how exploitation can happen to anyone.”
National problem
While knife crime incidents continue to concern residents across Bedford Borough and beyond, Stean said Bedfordshire was not alone.
“Knife crime is a national problem,” he said, “It’s not just a Bedfordshire problem.”
However, he said the county’s knife crime trajectory was currently moving in the right direction.
“When you look at crime rates in Bedfordshire, we are actually lower compared to where we’ve been before with knife crime,” he said.
“The trajectory is on a downward trend, which is really positive for us [but] that doesn’t mean our work is stopping now.”
Stean said new national measures introduced in April mean any child found carrying a knife must now be referred to youth offending services for intervention work.
“That child gets that intervention much quicker now than before,” he said, “It’s all about early intervention and prevention.”
Long-term approach
As well as enforcement, Bedfordshire Police says it is continuing to work with schools, charities, youth organisations and national agencies to try to break cycles of exploitation before violence occurs.
Stean said prevention remained the force’s biggest priority.
“It’s about trying to stop that constant cycle of children carrying weapons,” he said.
“We’re working with more and more partners and trying to come up with more interventions to divert people away. It’s all about early intervention and prevention.”
