As the rates of knife and sharp instrument offences continue to rise, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) says that more resources are needed to combat a ‘crime epidemic’.

 

Today (January 23) the Office for National Statistics has published its latest police-recorded crime figures for the year ending September 2019 (June 2019 to September 2019). Though there has been a 6% fall in homicide, there has been a record 7% rise in knife/sharp instrument offences and a 12% rise in robbery.*

 

PFEW National Chair John Apter said, “Until policing has the resources it needs these increases in recorded crime will continue to increase.

 

“Society has become a more violent place and the police cannot and should not be expected to fight this crime epidemic alone.

 

“We need more support from other areas of the public sector. This is not a simple problem to fix,” said Mr Apter.

 

The statistics also show:

• A 12% rise in violence against the person
• A 14% rise in theft
• A 21% rise in drug possession

 

Mr Apter continued: “Policing needs more resources; the criminal justice system needs more investment and we need more prison places to ensure the most violent offenders are behind bars.

 

“The Government’s funding announcement for policing was a move in the right direction, but it goes nowhere near enough on undoing the damage from the past decade of government cuts.

 

“We need long term sustainable funding which must make a positive difference to policing. This is what policing needs, and what the public deserves,” he concluded.