Bedfordshire Police’s chief constable has said there’s more work to be done to tackle knife crime as figures show the county ranks among the highest in England for offences.
As reported in the Bedford Independent last week, the analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data by training company Get Licensed found that Bedfordshire is in eighth place with nine “total offences” involving a knife per 10,000 people.
Read: Knife crime rates in Bedfordshire amongst highest in England
During last week’s Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee (16 January) councillor Abu Sultan (Labour, Cauldwell) asked what Bedfordshire Police is doing to “address the rise in violent crime, including knife crime”.
Chief constable Trevor Rodenhurst said: “Knife crime is a real issue I think for the country, and there’s no police service area that’s not affected by it.”
He said the force’s response is “robust and effective”.
“Nevertheless young people, predominantly young people, still choose to go on our streets and carry knives,” he said.
“We need to tackle the mindset around that.
“The fact is a young person going out on the streets carrying a knife is far more likely to either use it, have it used on them, or have another knife used on them, and become, one way or another, either an offender or a victim of this type of crime.
“Therefore, our opportunity in the right environment is to really make the case to divert individuals away from that behaviour.
“We need to come together with really effective plans on the diversionary effort.
“We need to up our effort across the system… because of the impact it has on communities,” he said.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
