WM Chief Constable reveals knife crime arrests success

West Midlands top cop Craig Guildford explains why knife crime arrests have risen

Transcript

00:00It's the Express and Star and we're with Chief Constable Craig Guilford from West Midlands

00:07Police in Bourneville Police Station where there's a brand new custody suite, or not

00:14brand new, an old one refurbished which has been opened and the Chief Constable wants

00:20to talk about why and how they've opened this.

00:24So the reason we're here today and the reason we've opened this is because over a period

00:28of two and a half years the arrest numbers have nearly doubled.

00:32So this is the third new custody suite that we've opened and the reason we're doing that

00:36is because we've reduced crime and we've detected four times as many offences as we did two

00:43and a half years ago.

00:44That's down to some very good work, very hard work of our officers and staff.

00:49So crime is down about 15%, burglary is down a third, homicide is down a third, robbery

00:55is down 19% and vehicle crime is down by about 15%.

01:00All those over the last two years are down to some extremely hard work and focus and

01:05I'm very pleased with the way that the force is continuing to detect and to reduce crime

01:10and that's very important for me as Chief Constable and in particular when it comes

01:15to knife crime we have seen some reductions.

01:19We've seen a 15% reduction where a knife has been used in robbery offences too and we continue

01:24to bear down on that crime because I think it's very important for the public and it's

01:29certainly important for me as Chief Constable.

01:31And with knife crime we've seen offenders getting younger, victims getting younger.

01:38Are there any special policing powers or is there extra training now to do with the younger

01:45age of victims and offenders?

01:48Specifically the training continues all the time and it gets refined every year but our

01:53aim is to prevent those offences and to detect those offences.

01:57So our approach, you are absolutely right, younger people aged 15 to 25 are predominantly

02:05the victims but also the offenders, particularly for knife-enabled robberies.

02:10So we focus on preventing those crimes by our Operation Guardian patrols into specific

02:14areas and I've put more resources into that and will continue to do so but importantly

02:20we're making early arrests.

02:22We are getting very good at arresting people who would get the report that they're carrying

02:26a knife.

02:27We bring them to the custody suite and young people, we try and make a decision whilst

02:32they are in the custody suite to divert them away, to try and do some safeguarding around

02:38the edges of that person's particular circumstance and most importantly to secure justice on

02:43behalf of the public to prevent further offences.