Bedfordshire's police and crime commissioner admits there's more to do to tackle knife crime

But warned against complacency around violence on the county’s streets.

Speaking at last night’s Extraordinary Meeting, Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel (Wednesday, June 25) councillor Basit Mahmood (Labour, Challney) said Luton residents are increasingly concerned about rising knife crime.

“What reassurance can you give the public today that you will be doing your utmost to bring those figures down,” he asked the police and crime commissioner (PCC).

The PCC, John Tizard, said the police are “doing their best” to arrest those carrying knives with the “wrong intention”.

Adding that a recent knife amnesty collected thousands of knives across the county.

“We’ve got to do [a few] things, I think, in terms of knives,” he said.

“Some of which we can do and some which require the central government to do.

“One is we need to tighten the law on who can buy and who can sell (particularly online) and the government has introduced the tightening of online sale of some knives and similar – but they are still available.

“We’ve got to educate young people, and it isn’t only young people who carry knives.

“They believe that if they carry a knife they’re going to be safer, but actually, if you carry a knife you are more likely to be stabbed.”

The PCC recalled a recent conference in Luton on knife crime which is planned to be replicated across the county.

“[This] was a conference for parents to really explain to them what to look for and how they can fulfil their responsibility, because often parents will not be aware that their adolescents have got a knife,” he said.

“They may not be bringing it home, they may be stacking it somewhere and then some other even younger kid may pick it up.

“We’re doing lots of policing education in schools through the education team.

“The police have just launched a very powerful short film called Lost Boys, which is very much aimed at how you identify those boys, it’s predominantly boys, but not exclusively boys.

“There is a lot we are doing, but we need to do a lot more.

“But we can’t do it on our own.”

The PCC said that at the Knife Angel event in Luton some of the speeches from MPs and local politicians could have been predicted.

“But a speech from a mother of a child, a young man, who had been murdered two years ago, three years ago was really powerful,” he said.

“Another was from a consultant at the L&D who was saying almost the day doesn’t go by when he’s dealing with the stabbing in the theatre, and that was really telling.

“Describing quite graphically, but professionally, the kind of injuries he was now dealing with and that they were worse than the ones from a few years ago.

“We’ve got to be very careful, we don’t become complacent,” he added.

“That we don’t begin to take it as business as usual – if someone gets shot that becomes a headline.

“If someone gets stabbed it’s ‘oh, it’s another stabbing’.

“No, that is a life that’s been wrecked, or probably two lives because there is a victim and a criminal,” he said.