Notts Police are tackling knife crime with a specialist operations unit as previous gang members claim incidents go ‘unreported’.
Reece Campbell, 24, from St Ann’s, was involved in gangs from the age of 15; he has since turned his life around and works as a support worker at the Chayah Development Project, a Sneinton-based organisation helping youths out of gang culture.
He says the youngest person he’s seen carry a knife was an eight-year-old boy and ‘a lot’ of stabbings are not reported to the police because of the possible ‘repercussions’ of the victims facing further harm or being labelled a ‘snitch’.
Reece said: “A lot of people will get stabbed and go to hospital – or not go to hospital – and they’ll say to doctors they cut themselves with glass or something else.
“Let’s say [a gang member] says to the doctor, ‘I’ve been stabbed’. The police will try and question them before they’ve been stitched up in hospital. No one wants that.”
Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Leona Scurr is in charge of a knife crime squad, a team of officers working to prevent knife crime in the city and county, and says the unit is using intelligence-led tactics to catch people who they suspect are carrying knives.
She said some people carry blades for protection or for retribution purposes, while some males of ‘low social standing’ carry a blade to give them kudos on the streets.
“The issues which have been fed back are that people perhaps feel paranoid about being a victim [of knife crime], so feel they need to carry a knife for protection,” she said.
“Paranoia can come from them being involved in a gang, mental health issues, drug-induced issues – cannabis is a real issue causing people to be paranoid.”
She also said the reasons why people carry knives are ‘deep-rooted’ and victims of knife crime are more likely to become offenders.
The knife crime squad are working with other agencies to safeguard approaches to victims of knife crime in hospital because, in the past, officers were responding by pushing on with investigations rather than initially ensuring victims’ safety.
She said: “Officers need to think what’s happened to this person in their life, why have they ended up a victim or an offender of a stabbing. Taking a more personal approach is the way we’re moving forward with this.
“It’s not all about investigations or court – I don’t think that will change the knife crime issue.”
The force uses the intelligence of neighbourhood inspectors to glean what’s happening in areas across the city and county and conduct searches of people they have grounds to believe are carrying a blade – and the knife crime squad are currently targeting St Ann’s.
This comes in the wake of the death of Reuben Morris-Laing, 21, who was killed in a St Ann’s knife attack on March 22.
The knife crime squad was set up a year and a half ago, following a national rise in knife crime, and is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Notts Police figures show there was an average of one reported stabbing nearly every three days in the city or county last year.
In 2016 three stabbings caused fatal injures – this rose from one death in 2015 – but the 125 reported stabbings dropped from 149 two years ago.
DCI Scurr said there is no room for complacency and the knife crime squad are targeting a cohort of ‘knife crime carriers’, people living in the city who have previously been found carrying knives and are considered a risk.
She said the positive outcome rate of the stop-and-search method is ‘very high’ and achieves results 40 to 60 per cent of the time.
A minimum jail sentence of six months was introduced two years ago for repeat offenders of knife offences after a spate of stabbings in London but, worryingly, DCI Scurr said this law hasn’t proved a deterrent to offenders in Nottingham.
She said the force cannot understand why and says the best solution is educate youths about the implications of carrying knives.
The knife crime squad delivers a street awareness education package to year six primary pupils about weapons, and plans are in place to deliver a similar package to secondary school children.
