Weapons crimes rise in Staffordshire
Crimes involving weapons in Staffordshire has reached its highest level for five years, shocking new figures show.
More than 2,000 crimes involving weapons took place in the county between 2012 and 2016, but the figures peaked last year with 447 offences.
The total figure of 2,065 crimes committed in the five-year period includes 86 incidents of people being threatened with a blade/sharply pointed article in a public place. These figures also peaked in 2016 with 24 offences, compared to 18 the year before, and show that knife crime is on the rise in the county.
Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis has now called on Staffordshire Police to focus on knife crime and has called for a community response to make Staffordshire safer and reduce crimes involving knives.
The figures, released through a freedom of information request submitted by the Express & Star, also reveal there have been seven incidents of people possessing offensive weapons on school premises, with two in 2012, one in 2013 and two each in 2014 and 2015. There were no incidents last year.
The main bulk of the 2,065 crimes is made up of possessing an offensive weapon in a public place offences. There 406 in 2012, 354 in 2013, 398 in 2014, 371 in 2015 and 414 in 2016. Over the five-year period there was a total of 1,943 incidents.
In response to the figures Conservative PCC Mr Ellis said: "Knife crime is an area that Staffordshire Police need to focus on, especially where it concerns young people.
"It is everyone’s responsibility including parents, schools and charities to make Staffordshire safer and reduce crimes that take place involving knives and offensive weapons."
Staffordshire is not the only region in the country to report a rise in knife crime, with the Black Country also reporting an increase. The number of arrests for knife possession across Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton almost doubled in three years including 21 arrests for possession of blades on school premise.
West Midlands Police arrested 38 people for possessing 'knives, blades or sharp pointed articles' in 2014 but this rose to 73 in 2016.
The biggest number of arrests for possessing 'knives, blades or sharply-pointed articles' were in Sandwell. The borough saw 65 arrests between 2014 and 2015, compared to Wolverhampton with 45, Walsall with 22 and Dudley with 21.
And the number of arrests also shot up year on year in Sandwell, from five in 2014, to 16 in 2015, and 44 in 2016.
