1 week Ago By [email protected] (Daniel Holland)
Knife crime and other forms of serious violence in Newcastle are on the decrease, city leaders have been told. Figures presented to senior officials this week showed a 9% cut in the overall number of violent offences committed in the city from 2023 to 2024, with the total falling by 607 to 6,096. Members of the Safe Newcastle community safety partnership board were told on Monday that there were 35 fewer offences involving a knife in Newcastle last year, the total of 322 marking a 9.
8% drop. That was better than the wider Northumbria Police area, which as a whole recorded a 5.7% decrease in knife crime.
Data from the Northumbria Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) also revealed that the number of people hospitalised in the city following incidents involving a sharp object halved from April to December 2024 compared to the same period the year before. The number of threats to kill made in Newcastle reduced by 38% in 2024 and there were 340 fewer ‘assault with injury’ offences, an 8% fall. During 2024 there were 428 robberies in Newcastle, a decrease from 500 in 2023, 47 of which involved a knife.
VRU director Steven Hume told Monday’s board meeting that, despite the generally improved picture, more work was needed to build a feeling of safety and reassurance in communities as one incident can still have a “catastrophic impact”. Northumbria Police Chief Superintendent Barrie Joisce said the improvements seen in Newcastle’s crime statistics were “a bit better than green shoots” and that the changes now appeared to be “consistent over a period of time”. Adding that data showed a fall in every type of crime in the city aside from shoplifting and drug-related offences, he said: “These are really, really big reductions – the kind you don’t see in other areas.
There is a really positive story to tell in Newcastle as a whole on the work we are doing.” Mr Hume told the community safety partnership board that the VRU, which has had its Home Office funding continued for another year, will be tasked with expanding its remit to take a more preventative approach. This will involve setting up a new Prevention Panel aimed at intervening in the lives of children aged 10 to 17, who are starting to come to the attention of authorities and are deemed at risk of becoming either a victim or perpetrator of serious violence.
The panels are expected to be piloted in 20 locations across the country, with either Newcastle or Sunderland likely to be chosen to launch the experiment in the North East. Join our Breaking News and Top Stories WhatsApp community for all the latest news direct to your phone. To join you need to have WhatsApp on your device.
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