Birmingham headteacher fears increase in youth knife crime

Feb 12 2009 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Post

Knife crime among young people may get worse before it gets better, a Birmingham headteacher has said.

Bev Mabey, head at Washwood Heath Technology College, spoke out at the launch of a year-long campaign organised by West Midlands Police, Birmingham City Council and youth groups aimed at stamping out knife crime.

Last year the West Midlands was named as a knife crime “hot spot” by the government but West Midlands authorities have been keen to say that knife crime per head was much lower than in other areas such as London. In the year to March 2008 there were 435 knife-related robbery victims aged from 13 to 16, which accounted for less than half a per cent of all recorded crime.

Mrs Mabey, who is part of a group set up to work on reducing knife crime in schools, said: “It’s a concern because when you talk to young people, they often say they carry a knife because they feel vulnerable and because it’s for their own protection.

“I think it’s almost likely to escalate before it will decline because we are now looking into preventative measures and we’ve got to let them have time to work through the system.”

But she was keen to point out that knife crime was still a very small problem in the city with only a tiny percentage of overall crime related to knives.

She said at her school, where metal detectors - also known as safety arches - had been used to identify people carrying knives, there had yet to be a case of anyone carrying a dangerous weapon.

Police plan to put temporary metal detectors in a number of schools throughout the city this year as part of the campaign. Supt Matt Ward, of West Midlands Police, said: “We realise that knife crime is a serious issue but what we want to say is that it is not a big problem in the West Midlands. We are going to have safety arches in school but the main aim of them is to show people that it isn’t a big problem, that there aren’t many people using knives.”