A day in the life of police in Britain’s knife crime capital

With their sirens blaring and blue lights flashing, Inspector Colin Gallier and Sergeant Myles Duce of West Midlands police are racing to apprehend a man allegedly carrying a knife and know they are against the clock.

They had been en route to an anti-knife crime deployment in Washwood Heath, northeast Birmingham, identified as a “violence hotspot”, when they receive a report of drug dealing outside a property. A 999 operator tells them a “group of males have been spotted with a knife”.

The Times joined officers at the country’s second largest force on a Friday afternoon last month to see how they are tackling knife crime. Data released last year showed its rate of knife and sharp instrument offences (170.3 per 100,000 people) was the highest of any force in England and Wales.

It has been five years since West Midlands launched Project Guardian, a task force aimed at cutting knife crime and youth violence. It has since expanded across the region and The Times is shadowing Gallier and Duce as they lead a team of nine PCs on two deployments in Birmingham.

Motorists move aside to enable the police van to glide through the after-school traffic. Surely the sirens will only encourage the suspects to make off?

“People here are used to the police batting up and down with blue lights on so they might not think it’s because of them — especially if they think they’re being smart and believe no one is watching them,” according to Gallier, who leads Project Guardian.

We pull up on the corner of Gowan Road and the officers leap out. A young man glances over his shoulder and speeds off on his bike as other boys follow on foot. As Gallier and Duce sprint after them, diners at Dixy Chicken squint through the glass and passersby slow down to see what’s going on.

The cyclist is detained on a side street and hyped-up schoolboys whip out their phones and start filming, offering sarcastic commentary as the officers seek to contain the scene. Two other teenage boys are searched but nothing illegal is found on them.

Duce recovers a meat cleaver from an alleyway and a number of boys gasp at the sight of the blade. A bottle of orangeade is also collected for potential DNA. A shopkeeper standing nearby shakes his head. “We watch people dealing drugs here every day. The police come but these kids don’t care,” he said.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon and later bailed. “It wasn’t until they were absolutely certain we had our eyes on them that they started to run,” Gallier said as we walked back to the police van. “I felt all sorts of creaking pain in my leg,” he joked.

At the top of Gowan Road we notice that a blue Nissan Micra has mounted the pavement. A tall man dressed in a beanie hat, brown jumper and jeans appears agitated. After securing the weapon, Duce peers under the car and picks up tiny screwed up bits of paper.

The man is searched and officers retrieve a green carton allegedly containing more wraps. A total of 84 suspected heroin wraps with an estimated street value of £1,000 are recovered. The man was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and taken into custody. He remains on police bail.

We joined the operation as Birmingham and the Black Country reeled from a wave of knife attacks in early April.

Isaac Brown, 15, described as a “fun and mischievous”, was stabbed to death in West Bromwich town centre on April 7. Two boys aged 13 and 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have each been charged with murder, robbery and possession of a bladed article. They were remanded into custody and are due to enter pleas at Wolverhampton crown court on June 14. Meanwhile, four men were stabbed in separate attacks in Handsworth, Northfield, Bloxwich and Dudley on April 11.

Trauma medics said it’s “almost unheard of” to go a night without treating a knife wound or penetrating injury. Postcode rivalries, warring drug gangs and social media disputes have fuelled the city’s knife crisis, they said.

About six years ago, doctors noticed more young people presenting at emergency departments. They flagged their concerns to the police but claimed officers said they were “unable to spot an obvious pattern”.

One medic told The Times: “We don’t like losing patients but young people dying in our resus room is more traumatic. The cases stay with you and play in your head. You think, ‘Could I have done anything different?’”

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In 2019 the West Midlands experienced the biggest annual increase in knife crime of any area in England — up 17 per cent on the previous year compared with a 7 per cent increase nationally.

The force launched Project Guardian after receiving £7 million from the Home Office to stem the bloodshed and prevent more young people being killed by knives. However, figures published last year show that the West Midlands recorded 5,006 knife and sharp instrument offences in 2022, behind the 11,517 at the Metropolitan Police.

Gallier acknowledged the rate of 170.3 knife and sharp instrument offences per 100,000 people and said it’s “obviously concerning to be placed so high in knife crime data”.

He issued caution about conflating every knife that is seen or recovered with a stabbing, pointing to the way offences are recorded and added: “Certainly, we’ve got our own challenges, as has every force in terms of serious violence.”

He said Birmingham has the highest number of young people in comparison to other cities. Officers are using tactics such as stop and search, “behaviour detection” and making use of community intelligence to rid the streets of weapons and keep the public safe, he said.

In a corner office at Bournville police station, Gallier showed me two large knives that officers had seized the previous day.

“Combat knives are most likely to be recovered during deployments,” he said. “A large, intimidating knife with serrated edges is what young people want to put on show. It appears to be the knife of choice for those intent on carrying.”

These fixed blades, which often combine a smooth and a serrated edge, were originally designed for military use but are commonly used as utility tools. Available online for as little as £20, police believe prospective knife buyers are shunning brick and mortar stores — raising fears that knives are being bought in bulk from online retailers and sold via social media and encrypted chat groups.

Across the West Midlands, at least 55 weapons, including machetes and kitchen knives, are being taken off the streets each week. However, officers are concerned that the rise in combat knife seizures is at odds with the relatively easy access to household blades.

Gallier said: “We are always trying to understand why young people are arming themselves. When we speak to them, quite often we get the opinion it’s for self-protection. Clearly, that tells us there is fear within that demographic in the community.”

To help combat this fear, Gallier said the force has been using data and intelligence to effectively target violence hotspots — a practice known as “precision policing”.

In February of this year Washwood Heath was identified as an area where organised crime groups and county lines gangs were running the streets. Officers have targeted their networks and business interests to drive out criminality, safeguard young people at risk of exploitation and rebuild the community’s confidence.

Early results are promising: in the six weeks to April 3 officers carried out 60 stop and searches, made 13 arrests, seized seven weapons and made nine drug rehabilitation referrals.

Gallier said: “Our job is to engage with young people and understand why knives are being carried but it’s challenging for us because there always seems to be a barrier [between us]. We’re trying to understand that perception.

“Police constables who do this every day know what they’ll be faced with: potential hostility, mobile phones in their face and allegations as to why they may be stopping them — it adds to the difficulties of what we’re trying to achieve. Ultimately we want to prevent young people from harming each other.”