Tackling knife crime a priority, says new Avon and Somerset PCC
It comes with more than a dozen lives lost on our streets since the start of 2023
The new Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset says reducing knife crime is one of her top priorities.
Labour's Clare Moody was elected to the role on 2nd May with the force area widely considered to be in the midst of a knife crime epidemic.
Statistics recently obtained by Hits Radio show 13 people lost their lives to a knife in the region last year and a further four people have died just on Bristol's streets, since the start of January.
Just a few days into her new role we have met up with PCC Moody to hear how she hopes to deal with it.
Her role will see her set the budget for the force, advise on their priorities and hold their actions to account on behalf of the public.
She said: "This has to be about prevention...
"It's got to be about youth services, it's got to be about working with families and it's got to be about offering opportunities for young people, so they have bright futures and not futures that are kind of channelling them almost into the criminal justice system."
Among those to have lost their lives in recent months is Mikey Roynon, aged just 16.
Mikey, from Kingswood in Bristol, was killed at a house party in Bath when tensions flared between two groups of boys, resulting in him being stabbed in the neck.
Evidence presented at Bristol Crown Court suggested as many as a dozen boys at the party had knives, with three other 16 year olds now serving custodial sentences for his killing including Shane Cunningham, who was handed a life sentence for murder.
"If we're dealing with knife crime as it happens, then frankly we have failed those young people," PCC Moody said.
"So we have got to focus on the prevention agenda and if we make it so that knife crime is no longer the level of conversation that we are having right now, I will be ecstatic about that."
It comes as Wiltshire Police are beginning a special week of action to tackle knife crime, as part of a national initiative called Operation Sceptre.
As part of the week a new permanent knife surrender bin is being installed in Devizes.
Similar bins have already been installed by Avon and Somerset Police in Bristol's Castle Park, The Park Centre in Knowle and, most recently, on Stapleton Road.