London’s WORST boroughs for knife crime revealed: Capital had more reports of bladed weapons than any other city in 12 months at 13,405 – with Southwark, Westminster and Croydon having the most dangerous streets
- London is heart of all knife crimes in England: Met responded to 13,405 incidents
- 49,991 non-fatal crimes involving knives between October 2021 and June 2022
- Of 679 homicides, 38% were result of assault using knife or sharp instrument
- Westminster has the highest rate of offences by population with 253 since June
Met Police responded to 13,405 incidents involving knives in just 12 months, in a further sign Lawless London has become the knife crime capital of the country.
Between October 2021 and June 2022, 49,991 non-fatal crimes using knives were recorded across England and Wales, according to crime survey data released by the Office for National Statistics.
This is equivalent to 136 incidents every single day.
In that reporting period, knife offences recorded by the Met increased from 10,605 to 11,232, to a rate of 125 incidents per 100,000 population.
Of the 679 homicides investigated in England and Wales during that time, 38 per cent (258) were a result of an assault using a knife or sharp instrument.
But that data period does not include the recent spate of high-profile murders and attacks which have gripped the city in recent months.
MailOnline can reveal between June and November this year, Met Police recorded a further 6,843 knife crimes, with 1,973 resulting in injury or death. In the 12 months to November, a total of 13,405 separate incidents were investigated.
Met Police responded to 13,405 incidents involving knives in just 12 months, in a further sign Lawless London has become the knife crime capital of the country
August proved the most dangerous month across the board with 1,125 offences alone, compared to 850 in February
Westminster has the highest rate of offences by population with 253 since June, accounting for about one incident per 1,000 people, while Bromley, Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames have the lowest rates in London.
Kensington and Chelsea recorded 89 incidents, with 273 in Southwark, 113 in Greenwich and 120 in Islington.
August proved the most dangerous month across the board with 1,125 offences alone, compared to 850 in February.
Nearly a quarter of all killings and more than half of shootings in London are linked to gangs, mayor Sadiq Khan revealed earlier this year.
But he warned knife crimes are not solely a gang issue, and impacts the wider community.
Mr Khan first implemented a knife crime strategy in 2017 in an effort to tackle the epidemic, vowing to ‘divert young people at highest risk of offending and victimisation away from a life ruined by crime’.
‘Our communities are sick and tired of the damage being done by knife crime,’ he said.
Research undertaken at the time found young, male gang members are the most likely people to be carrying knives in London.
Meanwhile outside of London, knife incidents in the West Midlands also increased from 3,299 recorded offences to 4,958 – 169 per 100,00 population – while Greater Manchester jumped from 3,297 offences to 3,563 offences.
The data, which analysed incidents police responded to over a nine month period from October 2021 to June 2022, found that – while still high – knife crimes have actually fallen below pre-Covid levels.
In the year ending March 2020, 55,076 offences were reported.
The primary factor in this fall can be attributed to a 27 per cent fall in robberies using knives. But there was an increase in all violent and sexual offences involving knives except for homicide, which decreased by 1% to 259 offences.
Homicide levels have also dropped by five per cent compared to the year ending March 2020.
The most recent data shows a homicide rate of 11 per one million people throughout England and Wales, compared with 12 per one million in 2020 and 10 per one million in 2021.
How many knife offences have occurred in London boroughs since June 2022?
Hillingdon: 124
Harrow: 105
Barnet: 155
Brent: 248
Ealing: 196
Hounslow: 140
Richmond upon Thames: 50
Hammersmith and Fulham: 103
Kensington and Chelsea: 89
Westminster: 327
Wandsworth: 170
Merton: 137
Sutton: 88
Islington: 162
Camden: 138
Haringey: 273
Enfield: 267
Waltham Forest: 111
Hackney: 203
Tower Hamlets: 207
Lambeth: 327
Southwark: 348
Croydon: 343
Redbridge: 122
Newham: 212
Greenwich: 158
Lewisham: 203
Bromley: 102
Bexley: 88
Barking and Dagenham: 116
Havering: 109
Kingston upon Thames: 53
The same study also examined trends relating to gun crime in England and Wales, and found police recorded 5,976 offences involving firearms in the reporting period.
This represented a 10 per cent decrease in gun crime compared to pre-Covid levels in 2020, and on par with those recorded in 2021.
Offences using imitation firearms – like replica guns including BB guns and soft air weapons – were the most prevalent with 2,060 recorded incidents, 37 per cent higher than in the year ending March 2020.
A total of 1,866 offences were committed using handguns, while there were 439 incidents involving shotguns.
The data involves any crime in which a firearm was shot, used as a blunt instrument or as a threat.
Gun crime is also trending down within London, according to Met Police data which recorded 1,464 offences in the year to September 2022.
Lambeth and Haringey experienced the most gun violence within that reporting window, with 102 and 94 known incidents.
Richmond upon Thames proved the safest suburb in London with just 13 known offences involving guns.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said earlier this year: ‘London is inundated with crime at the moment and – apart from putting out statements – Sadiq Khan has done next to nothing on this.
‘We have gang warfare on the streets of London in some boroughs… He needs to make this his No1 priority and focus on getting rid of these gangs.’
But chief constable of the West Midlands Sir David Thompson told The Times after the release of the Crime Survey for England and Wales that the way crime is measured is ‘completely mad’.
He said minor infringements like spats between neighbours were being recorded as criminal acts and had the potential to skew the public’s view.
‘We are recording colossal amounts of stuff in this violence category that makes the public think violence is going through the roof. But their actual experience of violence is going down,’ he said.
‘We like to tell people to be polite and civil, but our job is about crime. Where somebody might wave a stick at you or come around and be rude about your children, that’s incivility. It shouldn’t be crime, but it’s getting really close to how we’re recording it.’
Mr Thompson has called for a Home Office inquiry into the way crime is recorded in an attempt to make it even across the board and in different departments.
WATERLOO: A police cordon after a 32-year-old man was fatally stabbed during an incident near Waterloo Station, south London on October 28. The man, named as Adrian Keise, from Lambeth, was attacked during an altercation involving two groups of men in Lower Marsh Street, according to the Met Police
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