Knife crime nearly halved in Aylesbury Vale

Knife crime has dropped by 47% in Aylesbury Vale this year.

Partly that's being put down to lockdown, but the Vale's Superintendent Mike Loebenberg told us it's mostly because of neighbourhood policing.

He says officers search for weapons hidden in public places:

"Those knife sweeps have occurred in Alfred Rose Park, Edinburgh Playing Fields, Whitehill Park, as well as locations in Buckingham.

"So this is really about making it difficult for people to use that tactic."

As part of a recent operation, a knife surrender bin was at Aylesbury Police Station.

Mike added:

"78 knives were surrendered to that bin, which is quite a significant number for me.

"Ultimately that means those are weapons that are not available within our communities."

The Superintendent told us that their engagement work with potential offenders is also very effective.

That includes work in schools to try and get young people to avoid going down the route of carrying a knife or other weapon.

• knife crime
• aylesbury vale