Met Commissioner Says Police Cuts ARE Linked To Knife Crime Crisis

5 March 2019, 08:35 | Updated: 5 March 2019, 08:51

The Met Police Commissioner has denied that they are failing to stop the knife crime crisis which has gripped London.

Cressida Dick was pressed over the number of fatal stabbings in the capital this year, which has already reached 20.

But speaking to Nick Ferrari, she insisted the numbers are coming down.

She said: "My people are working incredibly hard. We have increased our operations in the last many months, indeed more than a year.

"We are taking more weapons off the streets. We are arresting more people. We are doing other disruptive activity, as well as record numbers in the last few years of Stop and Search."

Nick suggested perhaps they are failing to quell the number of people involved in knife crime, but Commissioner Dick disagreed.

She stated: "In the context of what's happened, I don't think figures mean that much to people. If you take the last 12 months and compare it with the 12 months before that, knife injuries in people under 25 are down by over 15%. Even homicides - thankfully relatively small numbers in London - it's 20 this year, this time last year there were 29.

"I don't take any pleasure from those numbers at all. But since you pressed me on whether they are stablising or coming down, I think they have done."

Theresa May denied that violent crime has risen due to police cuts, but the Commissioner disagreed, adding: "In the last few years, police officer numbers has gone down a lot. There has been a lot of cuts in other public services. There has been more demand for policing.

"Therefore, there must be some link. I agree there is some link between violent crime on the streets and police numbers, of course there is. Everybody would see that."