Knife crime ‘more prevalent’ in Hemel Hempstead, Welwyn Hatfield and Watford says police chief
Knife crime last year was 14% down from the previous year but is more prevalent in Hemel and two other areas according to the top man at Herts Police.
Hemel Hempstead, Welwyn Hatfield and Watford have the highest prevalence of knife crime in Hertfordshire, according to the head of the county’s police force.
A total of 1,725 knife crimes were reported last year, down 14% from the previous year, while 38 individuals have been identified as “habitual knife carriers”.
Chief Constable Andy Prophet revealed the statistics to Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Jonathan Ash-Edwards during the force’s performance and accountability meeting on Thursday, May 14.
The PCC described knife crime as “now a big national priority” set by the government for local police forces to tackle.
He then asked the chief constable about Herts Constabulary’s performance in tackling knife crime and “habitual knife carriers”.
Chief Constable Prophet said: “[It’s] a real clear focus for us. We have a knife crime action plan in Hertfordshire, which is part of what we want to do, irrespective of the fact that there is a welcome national initiative from the government to halve knife crime.
“In the last year, there were 1,725 recorded knife crimes, which was a reduction of 14% from the previous year.
“The areas where those knife crimes were more prevalent were Welwyn and Hatfield district, Watford district and Hemel Hempstead.
“They’re not high knife crime areas, but they were more prevalent in Hertfordshire.
“What’s important is when you look at those 1,725 over a year, the majority of those were possession offences, so [where] an individual has been found with a knife, very often because of proactive policing.
“When officers are doing those stop searches, and they’re finding knives, and maybe they’re giving words of advice and warnings or cautions or others.
“So, we’re finding a lot of this stuff ourselves, and not all of those are a knife-point robbery, for example. In fact, fortunately, very few of them are.
“I’m not complacent about it, because that’s still 1,720 too many; the performance has improved.
“We need to focus on hotspots, the intelligence, and the individuals that we know pose the greatest risk for carrying knives… habitual knife carriers, where we know we need to be specifically working on an individual.
“There are 38 people identified in Hertfordshire, 22 are adults, 16 are juveniles, and we are working with those individuals, working with probation, working with youth services, working with adult services, adult and mental health charities, to try and educate those individuals away from that dangerous behaviour. Where they don’t, we seek prosecution.”
The government’s national knife crime aims to halve knife crime within a decade, and the PCC asked how this aligns with local knife crime operations.
The chief constable said: “We’ve got, as I alluded to, our own Hertfordshire plan. Again, I’ve got a senior officer who leads it for me, and this is their kind of specific piece of work that they drive across the constabulary.
“It starts with prevention… I’ve talked about habitual knife carriers, but preventing young people and young adults from thinking that carrying a knife is safe.
“So, we work incredibly closely with schools, health providers, and youth services around that message. That’s the kind of core neighbourhood policing prevention.
“We work really, really carefully, as I’ve said, around individuals who we know are on the verge of starting to get into criminal behaviours that put them at risk of carrying knives.
“We will continue to do things as we did last year, like bringing the Knife Angel into Welwyn Hatfield and continue to promote the use of knife bins and knife amnesty.”