In only 12 months, the Met Police reacted to 13,405 knife-related crimes, further indication that Lawless London has emerged as the nation’s center for knife crime.
According to crime survey statistics supplied by the Office for National Statistics, 49,991 non-fatal incidents with knives were reported in England and Wales between October 2021 and June 2022.
This amounts to 136 incidences each and every day.
Knife offenses reported to the Met over that time period climbed from 10,605 to 11,232, or 125 incidences per 100,000 people.
38% (258) of the 679 killings investigated in England and Wales during that period included an attack with a knife or other sharp object.
However, the latest wave of high-profile killings and assaults that have engulfed the city in recent months are not included in that data period.
MailOnline has learned that the Met Police documented a total of 6,843 knife offenses between June and November of this year, 1,973 of which resulted in harm or death. Investigations were conducted on 13,405 different instances in the 12 months leading up to November.
With 253 offenses since June, or around one incidence per 1,000 people, Westminster has London’s highest offense rate by population, while the lowest offense rates are in Bromley, Kingston upon Thames, and Richmond upon Thames.
89 occurrences were reported in Kensington and Chelsea, compared to 273 in Southwark, 113 in Greenwich, and 120 in Islington.
With 1,125 offenses in one month, August was shown to be the most harmful overall, as opposed to 850 in February.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said earlier this year that gang activity is involved in about a quarter of all murders and more than half of shootings in London.
But he cautioned that knife crimes affect the whole community and are not just a gang problem.
In an attempt to combat the scourge, Mr. Khan initially adopted a knife crime plan in 2017. He promised to “divert young people at greatest risk of offending and victimization away from a life destroyed by crime.”
He said, “Our communities are sick and weary of the harm that knife crime does.”
Young, male gang members are more likely to be carrying knives in London, according to research done at the time.
Outside of London, knife incidences also surged from 3,299 to 4,958 — or 169 per 100,000 people — in the West Midlands, while they went from 3,297 to 3,563 in Greater Manchester.
Knife offenses are still high, but according to statistics analyzing events that the police handled from October 2021 to June 2022, they have actually decreased from their pre-Covid levels.
55,076 offenses were recorded in the year ending March 2020.
The main reason for this decline might be linked to a 27% decrease in robberies with knives. However, all knife-related violent and sexual offenses increased, with the exception of murder, which fell by 1% to 259 offenses.
Additionally, homicide rates have decreased by 5% from the year ending March 2020.
According to the latest current figures, there were 11 homicides for every million inhabitants in England and Wales in 2017, compared to 12 for every million in 2020 and 10 for every million in 2021.
In comparison to pre-Covid levels in 2020, this reflected a 10% drop in gun crime, which was comparable to figures from 2021.
The most frequent offenses were imitation firearms, such as replica guns, BB guns, and soft air weapons, with 2,060 occurrences documented, 37% more than in the year ending March 2020.
Handguns were used in a total of 1,866 crimes, while shotguns were used in 439 occurrences.
The information relates to any offense in which a firearm was discharged, threatened with, or used as a blunt object.
According to figures from the Met Police, which showed 1,464 offenses in the year leading up to September 2022, gun crime is likewise falling downward in London.
With 102 and 94 recorded instances, respectively, Lambeth and Haringey had the highest levels of gun violence during that reporting period.
With just 13 gun-related offenses reported to have occurred, Richmond upon Thames emerged as London’s safest neighborhood.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party, said earlier this year: “London is overrun with crime at the moment and Sadiq Khan has done almost nothing on this.”
In several London boroughs, there is gang fighting on the streets. He has to prioritize this and concentrate on dismantling these groups.
However, Sir David Thompson, the chief constable of the West Midlands, told The Times after the publication of the Crime Survey for England and Wales that the method used to evaluate crime is “absolutely insane.”
According to him, small infractions like altercations between neighbors were being classified as crimes, which may distort the public’s perception.
We are capturing massive volumes of information in this violent category, leading the general public to believe that violence is on the rise. However, he said, “their real exposure to violence is declining.”
“We try to advise people to be kind and respectful, but our work is about criminality,” one officer said. Incivility is when someone approaches you and waves a stick or comes over and is disrespectful to your kids. Although it shouldn’t be criminal, it’s quite similar to what we’re capturing.
In an effort to make crime reporting uniform across the board and in several agencies, Mr. Thompson has requested a Home Office investigation into how crime is documented.
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