The battle against knife crime in Bedfordshire must be "at the top of the political agenda", Borough Conservatives have demanded.
This follows new research this month that shows that serious offences involving a knife in Bedfordshire are exceeding national levels.
The official figures from the Home Office show that across Bedfordshire, there were 316 serious offences last year alone involving knives, with 22% of all wounding, grievous bodily harm or robberies being committed with a knife. This is comfortably above the national average of 19%.
Borough Conservatives are calling for a series of urgent measures to reduce knife crime in the Borough, which include:
· Anyone convicted of carrying a knife should expect to receive a custodial sentence. Currently, the Government is planning to let off offenders carrying a knife with a fine in some circumstances.
This follows new research this month that shows that serious offences involving a knife in Bedfordshire are exceeding national levels.
The official figures from the Home Office show that across Bedfordshire, there were 316 serious offences last year alone involving knives, with 22% of all wounding, grievous bodily harm or robberies being committed with a knife. This is comfortably above the national average of 19%.
Borough Conservatives are calling for a series of urgent measures to reduce knife crime in the Borough, which include:
· Anyone convicted of carrying a knife should expect to receive a custodial sentence. Currently, the Government is planning to let off offenders carrying a knife with a fine in some circumstances.
· Making it easier for police officers to stop suspects and search them for knifes and other weapons, and increasing use of mobile knife scanners on the streets and on public transport.
· Providing more custodial places for young offenders, and increasing support for drugs and education programmes, and tackling the causes of knife crime such as family breakdown, lack of school discipline and welfare dependency.
Conservative Borough Councillor for De Parys, Cllr Paul, commented:“Only last week, Bedfordshire Police announced a 10% drop in overall recorded crime and while this is welcome news, the latest crime figures cannot hide some very chilling facts.”
“Knife crime is a major problem on the streets of Bedfordshire and while it spirals out of control nationally, it is also spiralling above the national average in Bedfordshire. It is appalling that the Police can only spend 14% of their time on the beat fighting crime & families are justifiably worried that the streets and their youngsters are less safe.”
“Action is needed now if we are to get a grip on knife crime before it is too late, and our proposals are designed to achieve this and place the issue at the very top of the political agenda."
