It has now been more than seven years since Nottingham’s knife crime team were first deployed onto the city’s streets.
- Nottingham’s Knife Crime Reduction: Over seven years, Nottingham’s dedicated knife crime team has seized approximately 800 knives and offensive weapons, contributing to a 3% decrease in overall knife crime across Nottinghamshire, against a national increase.
- Proactive Policing Tactics: The team employs targeted patrols, intelligence gathering, and stop-and-search operations, with officers both in uniform and plain clothes patrolling thousands of miles across the city to deter and detect knife carriers.
- Educational and Community Efforts: In collaboration with local partners and schools, Nottinghamshire Police have introduced educational programs aimed at young people, highlighting the dangers of knife carrying and fostering community safety.
- Sustained Success and Future Goals: As the first city outside of London to establish a knife crime team, Nottingham continues to lead with innovative policing strategies, aiming for further reductions in knife crime through enforcement, education, and partnership.
The specialist officers have been directly responsible for around 800 knives and offensive weapons being seized in that time.
That includes the 76 weapons taken out of harm’s way by the dedicated team during their daily patrols over the last 12 months.
The targeted patrols make up a key part of what the knife crime team does, with the officers clocking up thousands of miles across Nottingham.
After selecting an area to focus on for their shift, the officers then split up into teams and go out in police cars to look for potential knife-carriers.
As well as using their own eyes, they also follow up the latest intelligence to identify suspects who could have a weapon or be involved in other criminality, like drug dealing.
Should they spot anyone they anticipate could be a knife-carrier, the team then work together to bring them to a halt and carry out a stop-and-search at the roadside.
This approach has resulted in numerous blades being found that might have otherwise gone undiscovered, with suspects coming up with all kinds of ways to try and hide weapons they’re carrying.
Following up existing intelligence in this way has also resulted in the team making some discoveries at properties linked to people they’ve stopped.
Having eyes on the streets has also led to the team identifying other offending too, like drug dealing and traffic offences, although targeting knife crime remains their number one priority.
Sergeant Matt Daley, of the city knife crime team, said: “During our varying shifts, we spend the vast majority of our time out in the cars following up intelligence about potential knife-carriers.
“Being out in the community in this way allows us to spot offending that might have otherwise been missed, while also providing a crime deterrent too through our visible patrols.
“We also divide our team up, so that we’re also joined by officers in plain clothes, with this tactic helping us monitor a suspect without being detected, before we decide whether to use stop-and-search powers.
“For every five people we stop, I’d say three out of the five leads to us finding something, whether that be a knife, drugs, or something else.
“We’ve found blades stuck to people’s backs, tucked into pants, socks and shoes – pretty much wherever you can imagine, people have tried to hide knives there.
“While the role we do does lead to us detaining suspects for other matters, the main reason we’re there is to target those involved in weapon-enabled crime.
“Everything we do is geared towards taking knives off the streets and putting anyone who carries them before the courts, in order to try and make our communities safer.
“We have had some success in this regard since the team was first deployed, but we’re fully aware that more can be done, so are absolutely committed to trying to do that whenever we go out on shift.”
Nottingham became the first city outside of London to introduce a dedicated knife crime team back in late 2016, while a second team covering the wider county has also been in operation for several years too.
Overall knife crime has fallen by three per cent across Nottinghamshire in the last year – compared to a five per cent rise nationally – with the knife crime teams helping contribute to this.
Other visible and discreet targeted patrols are also regularly carried out by Nottinghamshire Police too, while the force works closely with partner organisations to try and prevent knife crime offending from taking place.
This includes engaging with young people and educating them about the dangers of carrying a knife and the consequences this can bring.
As an example, the force recently worked with a range of local partners to introduce a collection of lesson plans around knife crime to be taught in primary and secondary schools across the city and county.
Superintendent Kathryn Craner, knife crime lead for Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Reducing knife crime is a force priority for Nottinghamshire Police and I want to reassure the public that a lot of work is going on to tackle this, both in Nottingham and the wider community.
“Our dedicated knife crime teams play an important role in helping make the streets safer, with their patrols leading to more weapons being seized and suspects identified than would otherwise be the case.
“It’s important that we continue to carry out proactive work like that produced by our knife crime teams each day, so that we can stay one step ahead of anyone thinking of carrying knives.
“Having this visible presence on the streets can have a real impact in helping to deter this type of criminality, while allowing us to rapidly respond to any offences that take place.
“Alongside our partners, we also do a lot of focused work around early intervention to try and stop young people making the decision to pick up a knife.
“Education on this topic is incredibly important to making long-term change, with our specialist schools and early intervention officers regularly going into schools to speak to children about this.
“We also recently worked with the city council and other partners to create new lesson plans around knife crime to be taught in all schools.
“While overall knife crime is down for the county, we are committed to doing more to maintain this trend, with enforcement, engagement and partnership work all pivotal in helping us achieve this.”
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