A violence reduction unit set up to tackle knife crime in Greater Manchester can't say how many people have been the victim of knife crime due to technical issues with GMP's computer system, according to a report seen by the Manchester Evening News .
The unit was set up by Greater Manchester Police and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) in 2019 with money from the Home Office, in response to an increase to the region's violence, particularly knife crime among young people.
An annual report published by the unit for 2021 to 2022 described a "significant" increase in violence in schools post-lockdown, and said that reports of domestic abuse to police had already increased in 2022.
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The document also pointed to the number of fatal incidents of knife crime across the region since the start of 2022, including the four tragic 'murders' of boys and young men.
Kennie Carter, 16, Alan Szelugowski, 17, Dylan Keelan, 20, and Neri Morse, 24, all died after being stabbed on the streets of Greater Manchester between January and April this year.
'A m arked under-flagging of knife related incidents'
But away from the high-profile crimes, authors of the report admitted that due to ongoing technical issues with GMP's iOPs system - which has been plagued with problems since its launch in 2019 - they are struggling to extract the necessary data to calculate the exact number of knife crimes being committed.
The report stated: "In 2018, Greater Manchester Police recognised an issue with their reported knife crime data. The Greater Manchester trend was significantly lower than the national trend. In Spring, Manchester Metropolitan University developed an algorithm to text mine the police data which illustrated a marked under-flagging of knife and sharp object related incidents.
"A problem profile was developed and provided a valuable evidence base for the Violence Reduction Unit. Due to technical difficulties with GMP's new iOPS system, this work has not been able to be refreshed since July 2019."
Authors of the report have reassured that work is currently being undertaken by the unit to make improvements in counting the number of recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments in the region, as well as other violent crimes.
"To ensure that we have a robust and accurate understanding of violent crime across the city region a Dynamic Problem Profile will be updated periodically focusing on all forms of violence and more in-depth analysis on specific themes," the report said. "The problem profile will include key violence offence groups; Homicide, Violence with injury, Violence without injury, Stalking and Harassment, and specific themes of Knife Crime, Domestic Abuse, Violence against women and girls and offences involving the discharge of firearms."
'Unit forced to use FOI requests'
The report also acknowledged problems with collecting information about the number of victims of violence who have been admitted to hospital emergency departments. As such, the unit have resulted to using Freedom of Information requests to request the relevant data.
"There are also challenges in getting hospital violence admissions data from NHS Trusts and we currently use Office for Health Disparities Fingertip's data on our dashboard, which is three-yearly aggregated data," the report said.
"Although our Clinical Lead is working hard to try and get this data, it is not consistently received as it is not a priority within the hospital trusts. As such we are currently having to request the data using Freedom of Information requests. We welcome Home Office support with this, as it is an outcome measure which is required in our reporting and is likely to be an issue across all 18 VRU’s and not just in Greater Manchester."
The report did commend team members of the unit for their commitment to tackling and preventing violent crime during the coronavirus pandemic - which threw up many "new" and "unforeseen" challenges shortly after the VRU was created.
"Barely a day goes by when one of our VRU team or commissioned services isn't working in a school or college somewhere in Greater Manchester, delivering really valuable sessions with children, young people and teachers to do all we can to prevent violence from occurring, the report said.
"Looking forward, the VRU is determined to do even more to assist and support parents who are worried about their children being affected by violence. The team will redouble its efforts with primary schools to work with children, families, and teachers at an even younger age to prevent issues developing, and with a particular focus on transition to secondary school when emerging problems can become amplified and more severe."
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority said: "The Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) works closely with colleagues in the NHS to obtain and share data. The anonymous data we receive from the NHS provides an important insight into violent crime that other data sources cannot offer. We are grateful to our colleagues in the NHS for their shared commitment to ending violence in our communities.
"Data confidentiality and information governance are complex and we are working hard across Greater Manchester to overcome barriers to sharing data so we can put in place the best services possible for our communities.
"We are in constant dialogue with government departments about how legislation can be improved to support data sharing and we welcome the forthcoming Serious Violence Duty which will assist with progressing this. The VRU continues to work closely with the NHS to support young people, communities, and reduce violence in the city-region."
Greater Manchester Police and NHS England have been approached for comment.
