The government has announced a £26 million fund and new mapping technology to tackle knife crime, focusing on persistent hotspots. The Home Office is sharing national mapping data with police forces to pinpoint specific streets and locations where knife offences are most common.
The Knife Crime Concentrations Fund will support operations in high-risk zones identified by the technology. The funding is earmarked for 27 police forces in England and Wales that handle 90 per cent of all knife crime incidents.
Policing minister Sarah Jones said: “Knife crime devastates lives and families across the country, and the majority of it takes place on just a small number of streets across the country. We will deploy state-of-the-art mapping to identify these hot spots and target them with police patrols, live facial recognition and knife arches to catch these criminals.”
The mapping system can identify hotspots down to 100 square metres and predict times of highest risk. Affected areas will see increased patrols, new CCTV cameras, live facial recognition, and knife detection arches.
The crackdown is part of a wider programme to halve knife crime within a decade. Ministers are also rolling out new youth centres under the plan Protecting Lives, Building Hope, with eight hubs in Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, County Durham, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Tower Hamlets. These are the first of 50 centres planned across England.
