15 May DJ2- Infogrpahic story featur- Knife crime and falling police numbers – a linked coincidence?
Knife crime, its’s an epidemic, and can be measured against the USA’s obsession with guns, however knife crime can dealt with and comes down to whether the means can be available, one of the big means being the police.
Pre- Conservative government beginning in 2010, knife crime was a subject only rarely heard about with it being scarce in the UK.
At time of writing, knife crime in thiscountry has mounted to dangerous levels, so far so that the total of crimes which involved a knife or sharp was 40,829 across the UK in 2018, with 14,847 of those being in the city of London alone with the level of fatal stabbings being at the highest level since 1946.
In 2016/17, the amount of knife crime in Camden was 347 cases in the borough, this grew the following year to 600 cases in the borough. In the same amount of time, Metropolitan police numbers fell by 695, lack of police can be linked to issue with lack of stop and search checks and less patrols.
The amount of cases throughout all boroughs of London has seen a rise and numbers of police falling by 3,534 has seen to be a key reason to the rise.
The current prime minister, Theresa May is trying desperately to solve the knife crime epidemic that is spreading around the country.
However it is her past actions in part that have contributed to a rise in knife crime in this country, accusing the police of ‘crying wolf’ when she was head of the home office, and when questioned in recent months claimed that “there is no link between knife crime and falling police numbers” even when it was admitted by Cressida Dick herself.
This comes at a time where police numbers have been cut by half (20,330 in the UK since 2010) with 3,534 coming from London alone, with numbers falling almost year on year.
From 2010 when the Conservative government took office police numbers have been cut and so have police budgets, with the Metropolitan police being asked to make savings of £1.4 billion by 2020. This can be seen with the recent inquest into the London bridge attack, where an officer said she waited “forever” for back up.
Not all looks bleak, as the mayor of London has tried to outweigh the issues facing the police, by putting more money towards the police giving 59.3 million pounds to supply 1,000 extra officers for the next three years.
Police are a valuable service to this country and knife crime is an issue which is becoming an everyday occurrence, which is making people feel less safe on the streets at all times of the day.
From information and statistics available, knife crime is a definite issue which has caused panic and fear for safety, ways need to be explored at how the issue can be tackled head and in stages to rid the country of this epidemic.
Link to infographic- https://infogram.com/knife-crime-in-london-1h17490q0p1q4zj?live
