THE WEST Midlands has seen a 30 per cent drop in the number of robberies involving knives since June 2024.
A dedicated taskforce was set up in October 2024 for an initial six months to turbocharge this work after seeing a stark rise in incidents between July 2023 and June 2024. The drive brought together the Metropolitan Police, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Avon and Somerset, and British Transport Police.

With efforts continuing throughout the past year, all seven police force areas are now seeing a reduction in robberies involving a knife since June 2024, collectively turning a 14 per cent year-on-year increase in knife-enabled robbery into a 10 per cent year-on-year reduction.

The West Midlands has had 771 fewer robberies involving knives since June 2024.

It comes as the Government has pledged to halve knife crime over the next decade, as part of its Plan for Change.

Interventions have included the use of hotspot policing, acting on better intelligence on offenders, increased patrols using knife arches, drones and plain clothes officers.

The Government’s Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones said: “Those who have been robbed at knifepoint know how terrifying and traumatic that experience can be, and this government took immediate action through the Plan for Change to reverse this troubling trend.

“Through relentless focus, targeted policing and strong partnerships, we are turning this worrying rise into a sustained fall, and we have also started to see a reduction in overall knife crime for the first time in four years.

“But there is so much more to do, which is why we are bringing in the toughest measures yet to crack down on the online sale of weapons and invest in the futures of our young people to set them on a better path.”

The fall in these types of robberies comes alongside a series of major interventions by the Home Office and police forces to tackle knife crime more broadly.

In August it became illegal to possess, sell, manufacture or import ninja swords. This measure, introduced under Ronan’s Law, followed years of campaigning by the family of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was murdered with a ninja sword in 2022.