Exceptional knife crime work praised by national lead

Collaborative work to tackle and prevent knife crime in Nottinghamshire has been described as “exceptional” by a national expert.

Commander Stephen Clayman, Head of the Central Specialist Crime Team at the Metropolitan Police Service, who is also the knife crime lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, visited Nottinghamshire yesterday to hear inspirational accounts of how Nottinghamshire Police, the Violence Reduction Partnership and voluntary sector partners work together to prevent serious violence.

He was so impressed by what he saw that he asked local partners to help lead national strategic efforts to tackle knife crime.

The visit, which came during the national knife crime awareness week known as Sceptre, included a tour of the National Justice Museum’s “Choices and Consequences” knife crime educational exhibit and a chance to see a knife arch in action in Exchange Walk.

They also heard presentations from Nottinghamshire Police’s tactical knife crime lead Chief Inspector Karl Thomas, Romel Davies, of Nottinghamshire Police’s youth outreach team, and Kerrie Henton, principal of Stone Soup Academy, which provides alternative provision serving students outside mainstream provision, and Maxine Cockett, of Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges, which provides a detached youth outreach service on the streets of Nottingham.

They also watched a heart-rending short film called “Hollow”, which was funded by the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner-led Violence Reduction Partnership, which is aimed at educating people about serious violence and exploitation.

Commander Clayman was joined on the fact-finding visit by Brendan Murray, from the Vulnerability Taskforce at Thames Valley Police, and also spoke to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Gary Godden and Deputy PCC Angela Kandola.

At the end of the visit, Commander Clayman said he was incredibly impressed by the collaborative work happening across the city and county and has asked Nottinghamshire Police and partners to help lead on the national knife crime “4P’s plan” (Prepare, Prevent, Protect and Pursue) and give a national presentation on the work happening in Nottinghamshire.

Commander Clayman said: “As part of Sceptre week of action, I wanted to see how different policing areas are tackling this difficult and complex issue of knife related crime.

“I was very impressed with the strong collaboration between policing, VRP, education and voluntary sector. The work conducted by the Stone Soup Academy, Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges funded by the VRP, along with the outreach work and wider policing response by Nottinghamshire Police was exceptional to see.

“It was compelling to see real examples of people embedded in their communities, not only supressing violence in the moment, but also building in longer term prevention work. This was a great example of working across the different facets of tackling knife crime, from prevention to enforcement.”

Nottinghamshire’s PCC, and Chair of the Violence Reduction Partnership, Gary Godden, said he was proud that Nottinghamshire had been recognised nationally for its successful partnership approach to preventing serious violence.

“Knife crime and serious violence is not an issue that can be tackled by one agency. Police can’t arrest their way out of it,” he said.

“Usually when the police are involved it is right at the end – when the harm is already done - so the partnership needs to get ahead of the issue and prevent knife crime and serious violence before it impacts on young people, families and the wider communities that they live in.

“No one is born bad. Often some of the people involved in knife crime have been groomed or exploited into a lifestyle and then find it difficult to escape.

“The approach of Nottinghamshire Police and the Violence Reduction Partnership has always been to work with lots of other partner agencies and take the public health approach of prevention being better than the cure – so it is about looking at education and social provision that can give people support to stay away from serious violence and reach their true potential.”

The Violence Reduction Partnership is Home Office funded and is responsible for the strategic leadership and coordination of activity across the City and County to reduce and prevent serious violence using a public health approach. The VRP team is a function of the Nottinghamshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Chief Inspector Karl Thomas, Nottinghamshire Police’s knife crime lead, said: “It was a pleasure to be able to welcome Commander Clayman to Nottingham this week and show him what we’re doing within our community to tackle knife crime.

“As illustrated to the national knife crime lead throughout his visit, so much collaborative work goes on between the police and our partners to crackdown on weapon-enabled offences.

“Preventing people from carrying knives in the first place is a key component of this, with education – particularly for young people – absolutely central to this approach.

“The National Justice Museum’s Choices and Consequences exhibition, the detached youth outreach service provided by Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges, and the Stone Soup are just three examples of great work involving our community partners.

“We’re committed to continuing to work closely with each of them and to do everything in our power as a police force to keep people safe in Nottinghamshire.”