Knife crime crisis: Sajid Javid to hear from police on cost of tackling epidemic
The home secretary has promised to argue the case of police chiefs with the treasury for an emergency injection of funds.
Friday 8 March 2019 08:39, UK
Police chiefs are to give the home secretary their assessment of how much extra money they need to launch an emergency surge against knife crime.
Sajid Javid gave chief constables until Friday to get back to him with a calculation of the funding required to deploy additional officers into knife crime hot spots to combat the rise in violence.
It comes a day after another teenager was murdered in a knife attack in London. The youth, believed to be in his late teens, was stabbed in the chest in West Kensington on Thursday afternoon.
Despite efforts to save him, he died a short time later in a central London hospital.
On the streets of Romford, east London, locals marched on Thursday evening in a show of solidarity with the family of teenager Jodie Chesney, who was stabbed to death in a local park a week ago.
Her family joined friends and neighbours, many wearing purple, which was the 17-year-old's favourite colour. The purple theme was replicated on key public buildings across Romford borough.
At Romford police station, those who gathered demanded that authorities provide more front line officers to tackle the scourge of knife violence.
In knife crime hot spots, police are mounting operations to target suspected offenders. But in order to stage a more concerted countrywide surge against knife carriers, they need many more officers.
The only way the police service can achieve that in the short term is to cancel leave and make teams work overtime.
Any surge against knife crime will have a significant cost.
The home secretary will learn just how much today, when the National Police Chiefs Council hands in its estimate from chief constables.
Mr Javid has promised to argue their case with the treasury for an emergency injection of funds. In Greater Manchester alone, senior officers estimate that bill will run into the millions.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts told Sky News: "It is a potentially big bill and I don't know how much available money there is.
"We have been asked to identify key gaps and key areas to invest in, in order to tackle this particular issue, which is what we are currently doing.
"It will be costed and designed to deliver a meaningful improvement in these areas and I have no doubt that other forces will be doing the same.
"What I would say is you can rest assured that, whatever additional resources we are given, we will do what we can to maximise the impact of those in tackling serious violence and knife crime."
But the chancellor has already indicated that he is lukewarm at best to appeals for extra finances.
Philip Hammond said on Thursday that police forces need to shift priorities rather than seek additional resources.
In the past fortnight, police in London have seized more than 100 knives off the street, but that is a tiny fraction of the deadly weapons still out there.
Police leaders have said that if they get the emergency funding they are asking for, they are confident they will be able to reverse the upward trend of violent crime.
As detectives in several cities investigate a spate of recent teenage knife murders, the need for action has never seemed more urgent.