There is 'far too much knife crime' in Manchester Chief Constable Stephen Watson has claimed, in response to an M.E.N investigation suggesting it is a 'pandemic'.
Greater Manchester Police’s top officer appeared in the BBC Radio Manchester Hotseat to take questions from the public and was asked whether the region he covers is truly in a knife crime pandemic. Mr Waston told radio host Mike Sweeney that the problem had reduced in recent months, but there was still “far too much knife crime”.
“Well I wouldn’t use the word pandemic because it is an emotive phrase that perhaps causes more fear than is entirely justified,” he said.
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“I wouldn’t in any way want to diminish the seriousness of the problem. We have far too much knife crime across Greater Manchester and it is the case that knife crime fell in the last month, it was about 3.8 per cent reduction which is about 168 fewer offences.
“In truth we have too much, it is at a high level, it is not disproportionately a high level for a place of our size. We have too many young people, for whatever reason, sometimes because of bad people who are carrying knives to carry out bad acts, and they are sometimes the lesser bad side of the spectrum - but are foolish and have to carry knives to protect themselves.”
This comes after figures released by GMP showed that from November to January a staggering 898 knife crimes were reported in our region. That includes three homicides, 12 rapes and 287 robberies where a blade was used.
Since the beginning of the year, the Manchester Evening News has reported on 17 serious stabbing incidents. They include a 14-year-old girl stabbed with a broken bottle in a school, a 62-year-old knifed in a supermarket car park and a 19-year-old stabbed in the chest in a park.
In response to this Mr Watson explained that GMP’s broad preventative approach includes the violence reduction partnership which is “well funded, well supported and well established”.
“You also need old fashioned boots on the ground and stop and search people asking them to turn out their pockets,” he claimed. “Then when you find people in possession of knives you need to lock them up and that is what we are doing.
“Our stop and search figures are up 264 per cent. We are stopping 4,000 a month and a quarter of those stops lead to people being arrested.
“We have already doubled arrests since I have come into force but over the last 12 months it is 52 per cent. There will be 20,000 additional people this year arrested which is around 5,000 a month.”
He ended the subject of knife crime with a clear warning for young people. “We see youngsters who say they intended to inflict a small injury but you’ve severed an artery.
“If you stick a knife in somebody you are taking a chance that you could end up categorised as a murderer in your teens.”
Child refugees on ‘Counterfeit Street’
The chief constable was also questioned on child refugees being put to work on Manchester's infamous 'Counterfeit Street' in Cheetham Hill having been recruited by criminals, another result of a recent M.E.N investigation. Police revealed last week another five shops were raided and shut in the notorious hooky gear hotspot.
In a sinister development, it was disclosed some of the 33 organised crime gangs linked to the district have groomed children - who came to the country as asylum seekers - and put them to work in shops and in county lines drugs enterprises, the Manchester Evening News reported.
Mr Watson confirmed these children were some of those who disappeared from hotels around the country. He explained this particular street has been a problem “for decades” which is why they are “stomping all over” the problem with Operation Vulcan.
Operation Vulcan - launched in late October by GMP to stamp out hooky businesses on Bury New Road near the city centre - is uncovering back the sheer depth of the criminality associated with them. This in a short period of time, has resulted in the closure of 79 counterfeit fronts, 254 tonnes of counterfeit goods being seized, and dozens and dozens of arrests, Radio Manchester was told.
Mr Watson dubbed this a “manifestation of what we understand to be a great problem for our country at the moment”.
Bobbies on the beat
When the age-old question about police on the streets came up - Mr Watson had news to deliver. He said March 6 would be the date community teams can solely focus on their patches. He explained that soon residents will be able to put their postcode into the police website and your local policing team will pop up.
Every patch will have a dedicated team directly contactable. Their positions are to be 'ringfenced' so they do not get called to incidents outside of their jurisdiction, Radio Manchester heard.
“We will not be building mini police stations on every patch as that is prohibited and expensive,” the chief constable admitted, responding to questions about local police bases being inputted across communities.
“Last week we reopened Leigh Police station and we have future announcements," he added.
“These are building’s that have been dormant for many years.”
Mr Watson also hailed his ‘newly invigorated’ traffic department who are starting to see success in dealing with motorists abusing road rules.
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