Gangs dragging youngsters into knife crime, says MP

An MP has welcomed extra police funding to tackle organised crime gangs which she says are dragging young people in her town into knife crime.

Rachel Hopkins, MP for Luton South and South Bedfordshire, was speaking as new figures show violent crime makes up almost a third of all incidents reported in the town, and a local teacher told the BBC that based on statistics "a knife incident could happen in any school".

The government has given an extra £7.3m to Bedfordshire Police to help the force tackle violent and organised crime.

Meanwhile, a charity that works with pupils in Luton's schools says its preventative work is making a difference.

According to Police UK there were 225 crimes reported in Luton in February.

Some 72 of them were recorded as violent or sexual crimes and it is another statistic that shows the challenges facing the town.

In January, Bedfordshire was ranked eighth in the country for the number of knife offences by the Office for National Statistics.

Last year the county played host to a visit by the Knife Angel, a sculpture built from 100,000 seized blades, which led to the recovery of more than 1,500 knives and weapons in the county.

The Att10tive charity has hosted over 100 knife crime workshops and the BBC Politics East programme joined them for a visit to the Chalk Hills Academy.

A former pupil, Azaan Kaleem, was fatally stabbed in Luton in March 2018 with two teenagers jailed for his murder.

"What people see is the very top of the iceberg, they don't see 95% of work that goes on to reduce it," said Montell Neufville from the charity.

"There might be something that happens tomorrow or next week, but you probably won't hear that 10 times more [attacks] did not happen because of the work that goes on every day."

But teachers said the threat of knife violence was always present.

Michael Taylor said: "Colleagues in our pastoral team have seen an increase in the prevalence of gangs and knife crime and it only seems to be getting bigger and bigger.

"If you look at the demographics of Luton and the number of incidents that are happening then a knife incident could happen in any school."

However pupils at the academy said they felt safe in Luton.

Katie said she heard of "some gang activity" but was not sure if that was just "the news picking out stories that are interesting".

Mikhael said he felt "quite safe" as there were "not as much gangs here, compared to London".

Anthony said he was worried about gangs near where he lived, but said his Mum had "warned me and told me what I should and should not do".

The Wingman Mentors, who are funded by the Bedfordshire Violence and Exploitation Reduction Unit (Veru), have set themselves the target of getting more than 200 bleed kits in locations across the town.

One of them, Simon Philbert, said: "One of the frustrations I have is seeing a lot of young people with man bags, and they have other paraphernalia in the bags.

"If one of them had a bleed kit in there, it could prevent a fatality.

"For me they are a lifesaver. It is not just about the kits, but also the awareness."

Hopkins welcomed the award of an extra £7.3m to Bedfordshire police which she said would ensure continued support for frontline operations including tackling serious and organised crime and targeting gangs, gun crime and youth violence in hotspot areas.

"We are too aware that there is significant and organised crime in Luton which exploits young people and that's why young people get drawn into knife crime," she said.

She said she was also lobbying for Bedfordshire Police to get a better deal under the police funding formula.

Maria Lovell, a Labour member of Luton Council and a former mayor, said she felt the town was safe.

"There is a lot of immense work going on within our community," she said.

"We are working with everybody and we will all be in it together as long as we have to, and we are not giving up."

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