Knife crime hotspots to see increased police operations

The government has announced it is investing over £26 million into the Knife Crime Concentrations Fund to support areas where knife crime happens most often.

To enable this, the Home Office has shared new national mapping technology which identifies the highest knife crime hotspots down to a precision of 0.1 square kilometres. Using micro-geography, the police can pinpoint the specific streets and times when knife crime occurs.   

These areas will see an increase in police activity, such as increased police patrols, new CCTV cameras, Live Facial Recognition deployment and the installation of knife arches.  

This comes as earlier this week, the government launched its plan to halve knife crime within a decade. Titled “Protecting Lives, Building Hope”, it will save lives, transform the futures of young people and protect communities across the country.   

Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones said: "Knife crime devastates lives and families across the country – and the majority of it takes place on just a small number of streets across the country.   

"We will deploy state of the art mapping to identify these hotspots and target them with police patrols, Live Facial Recognition and knife arches to catch these criminals."

The government has also announced a range of measures to better support young people and divert them away from knife crime.  

These include plans to launch 50 ‘Young Futures Hubs’ in areas impacted by knife crime in England and Wales and a commitment to continuing Violence Reduction Units by investing £66.6 million in the Serious Violence Reduction Programme in the new financial year.

The plan also includes providing £1.2 million for the Safety In & Around Schools Partnership which will see up to 250 schools in knife crime hotspots receive specialist training and support to divert children away from violence and improve pupils’ safety on their way to and from school.