Specialist knife crime team helping make streets a safer place

Foot pursuits, car chases and stop and searches are some of the tactics being used by the county knife crime team to make Nottinghamshire’s streets safer.

These specialist officers carry out targeted patrols across different parts of the county each day in a bid to identify potential criminals – including knife carriers.

The policing techniques used by the force’s two dedicated knife crime teams – covering the city and county – have played a major role in reducing overall knife crime in Nottinghamshire by 2% over the last year and by 9% when compared to levels seen before the pandemic.

Led by real time intelligence accessed through an in-car computer and using their own policing instincts out on the roads, knife crime team officers work together to zero in on those potentially involved in weapon-enabled crime.

The latest example took place on Friday (28 July) evening when the county team were out on patrol around Arnold town centre and spotted a group of people acting suspiciously.

After spotting officers approaching, the group tried to flee from the scene and a short foot chase then took place, which ended when the knife crime team found five suspects hiding in a garden in Smithy Crescent.

A knife was then discovered nearby when the officers retraced the steps taken during the pursuit, and five boys, aged 14, 15, 15, 15, and 16 respectively, were arrested on suspicion of possession of a knife in a public place.

The county knife crime team made 29 arrests for different offences throughout July, with their actions leading to four blades being taken off the streets during that time.

Among the weapons seized was a samurai sword, which the team found after pulling over a car during a patrol in Mansfield on 15 July, with this stop leading to a suspect being charged for the offence as a result.

A total of 58 intelligence-led stop and searches were carried out by the team last month.

These stops didn’t just lead to knife crime offences being identified though, with the team also making 15 drug seizures while out on patrol and seizing 12 vehicles for driving offences too.

Sergeant Jonny Groves, of Nottinghamshire Police’s county knife crime team, said: “I’m incredibly proud of the work my team do each day to try and make the streets safer with our proactive patrols across the county.

“While our priority is obviously to target potential knife-carriers and crackdown on weapon-enabled crime, we do often come across a range of other offences too, due to us being out on the roads in the way we are.

“It is common for those who carry knives to have links to wider criminality like organised crime groups and the drugs trade, so by targeting suspected drug dealers we see on patrol as well, we do often uncover weapons in this way, while also making drug seizures in the process.

“Being out and about on the streets carrying out our patrols also allows us to spot suspicious behaviour that we might not have otherwise known about, which in turn inevitably leads to us uncovering criminal activity.

“To use last Friday’s incident as an example, by being out in the squad cars as we were, we were able to see a group acting suspiciously, follow this up as a team, seize a knife from the scene and arrest five suspects.

“Any knife or offensive weapon we can take off the streets ultimately helps make our communities safer, so it’s pleasing to be able to make this difference through the work we do.”