Examination of Witness (Question Numbers
136-139)
ASSISTANT CHIEF
CONSTABLE PAUL
CROWTHER
13 JANUARY 2009
Q136 Chairman: Assistant Commissioner,
thank you for coming to give evidence. You have, of course, heard
the evidence of Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hitchcock. If you
wish to comment on any of the matters he has raised, you are more
than welcome to do so. The horrifying murder of Thomas Rhys Pryce
in Willesden gave rise to public concern about the level of knife
crime, especially in our transport system, and an analysis was
carried out by the British Transport Police, giving great detail
as to the times, the areas, the places where knife crime was being
committed. One of the statistics is that knife point robberies
peak during Wednesday and Thursday, that the peak times are between
15:00 in the afternoon and 16:59, as well as 21:00 hours and 00:59
hours and that 75.5% of offenders who committed these knife-point
robberies were aged between 13 and 25. This is extraordinary detail
that your report has produced. Do you feel that there is a public
perception that knife crime is on the increase, and do you feel
it is on the increase as far as the transport system is concerned?
Assistant Chief Constable Crowther:
In relation to the statistics that you have read out, I would
imagine, in fact I am sure, that any other individual police force
would be able to break down their crime statistics in a similar
way. It is the way that we operate. We look each week at how crimes
are developing. In respect of the transport environment, or the
rail transport environment (if I could contextualise the crimes
that related to knives in that respect), if we were to look at
the calendar year 2008, across the entire rail transport network—that
is, England, Wales and Scotland—there were 596 knife enabled
crimes, of which over half were robberies, and that is predominantly
the type of knife crime that we have to deal with rather than
perhaps the gang-related, assault-related crimes that might be
more prevalent in a geographical police force. But, again, to
contextualise that, that is against the backdrop of six million
passenger journeys each day, two billion people per year using
the rail system. So, in actual fact, whilst we are not complacent,
those are very small figures in comparison to the number of people
that are using the system.
Q137 Chairman: But is there a perception
that it is actually on the increase?
Assistant Chief Constable Crowther:
Listening to Mr Hitchcock's evidence earlier, I think there is
an issue around perception. There have been a number of high-profile
cases which have been reported and, inevitably, as a focus is
brought to this type of crime, any subsequent incident gets that
level of reporting as well, and that in itself can raise people's
perception, but that is not to minimise the effect of these crimes.
You referred to the murder of Thomas Rhys Pryce back in 2006.
That was, in fact, a catalyst for us in developing our Operation
SHIELD operation.
Q138 Chairman: We will come on to
that in a second.
Assistant Chief Constable Crowther:
So I would not seek to minimise at all the level of crime relating
to knives, but in our particular context it is actually on the
decline, and quite substantially so, since we have put in a number
of measures, which include SHIELD and other measures.
Q139 Chairman: Tell me this about
the alcohol ban that the Mayor introduced as soon as he took office.
Has that helped in reducing knife crime?
Assistant Chief Constable Crowther:
I would not say it has.
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