Gun crime rises for two-thirds of police forces as fears of 'lawless UK' grow following spate of murders
2 September 2022, 08:57 | Updated: 2 September 2022, 14:00
Two-thirds of police forces across England and Wales have seen rising gun crime, including one facing six times the amount recorded a decade ago.
A total of 29 of the 43 forces saw a rise in gun crime in the past 10 years despite an overall 14% drop in the same amount of time.
Eight saw the offences double while Cleveland Police saw a six-fold increase, The Guardian reports. It was the average yearly total leap from 22 to 127.
The focus on gun crime follows a spate of killings in Liverpool, including nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, and a focus on "lawless UK" – a spate of high profile wave of violence a series of killings in London and violent watch thefts.
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Among the most shocking was Olivia’s killing, in which two guns were said to have been used. She is believed to have been an accidental casualty.
Thomas O'Halloran, an 87-year-old granddad, was stabbed to death in London in August.
And a raft of footage shows watch thefts in broad daylight, with thugs making off with expensive time pieces after using violence against the owners.
Some of the general decline in gun violence is attributed to a reduction in London, but it appears to be on the rise in towns and rural areas of places like Sussex, Kent and Cheshire, driven by county lines operations.
Labour’s shadow policing minister Sarah Jones told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "A lot of crimes go unpunished and serious violence is on the rise.
"We are fortunate in this country compared to America for example that we don’t have the levels of gun crime, but this is awful.
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Young criminals don't have a father figure and mentor.
"I was in Liverpool on Friday talking to the local community and the impact the death of Olivia has had is severe as you can imagine.
"We need to stop guns getting into this country, we need to do more at our borders on that, we need to bring back the Serious Violence Task Force the Government, got rid of, Boris Johnson got rid of, that brings all the agencies together to look at these problems in more depth and actually tackle them and we need to put more police back on the streets."
The Government has pledged to hit its goal of recruiting 20,000 officers since it won the 2019 election, saying it will tackle gangs.
"We are cracking down on vile gangs and putting dangerous offenders behind bars for longer - and at the heart of these efforts are the 20,000 new officers who will be out on the streets providing the firepower for years to come in the fight against crime," Boris Johnson said.
