Calls for more focus on tackling knife crime in North Yorkshire
Almost 300 serious offences involving a knife were recorded in the year to March
Knife crime offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales increased year-on-year in the latest figures, but remain below pre-pandemic levels.
Some 50,510 offences were recorded in the 12 months to March 2024.
This is up 4% from 48,409 in the previous 12 months, but is 3% lower than the 51,982 in the year to March 2020.
In North Yorkshire 298 serious offences were recorded involving a knife including 31 threats to kill, 61 robberies, and 12 serious sexual offences.
The figures come as a charity working in North Yorkshire to tackle knife crime says we need a more intensive service for young people who've been caught carrying knives.
Naveed Akhtar is from the St Giles Trust - he agrees that tougher punishments are part of the solution - but says we also need to work directly with young people to ask why they're carrying a knife: "More funding needs to be put in place so that these organisations can go into schools and do more sessions with these young people, so it's like compulsory for schools to have these knife crime sessions delivered, followed up by intervention for those that are known to carry or known to be in gangs so they can get the right support early."
"It's going out speaking to them, seeing what is actually happening with them, are they involved in any criminality, are they being groomed, are they being exploited, what is it that is making them carry a knife. Once we can get to the bottom of that we can put the right support in place."