“Every incident is one too many” – Hackney comes together to tackle knife crime and serious violence

Partners from across the Hackney community have reiterated their commitment to working together to tackle knife crime and serious violence following the Hackney Anti-Knife Crime Summit held at Hackney Town Hall.

The aim of the summit was to reassure Hackney communities about the strong partnership in place to tackle knife crime, gang activity, and serious violence, with peaches from Mayor of Hackney, Caroline Woodley, and Deputy Mayor of London for Policing and Crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, recognising the importance of partnership working. 

It also served as a platform for community members and partners to share their ideas and views on future plans to tackle serious violence in the borough. Representatives from the Council, police and local organisations share their recent successes that have helped drive down knife crime with injury by nearly 15% and violence with injury by nearly 16% over the last twelve months.

That includes a project to improve Gilpin Square in Lower Clapton by addressing visible signs of crime and antisocial behaviour to discourage further law-breaking, which has been praised in a report that suggests the model could be used for other neighbourhoods.

The Council also led an innovative programme of increased outreach, support, enforcement and educational workshops to prevent knife crime and knife-enabled robberies last autumn.

The summit was an opportunity for organisations making a big difference in keeping young people away from serious violence, such as Mentivation, the Wickers Charity and Salaam Peace, to share their successes.

Find out more about the Council's approach to tackling serious violence at: hackney.gov.uk/serious-violence-support

In Hackney, by working with the community and our partners, we are proud to be recognised for our pioneering approaches to community safety that are starting to see results in driving down knife crime.

But every incident is one too many and has lasting harm on victims and their families. That’s why we have brought the community together to discuss how we can continue to do more, and we will use the invaluable  insights we have gained to  keep working towards a safer Hackney for all.

Cllr Susan Fajana-Thomas OBE, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Regulatory Services

Knife crime has a devastating impact on individuals, their families and the wider community. The MPS is committed to working with partners to do everything we can to tackle it.

As part of our New Met for London plan we are taking a precision based approach, employing both enforcement and prevention based tactics, including weapons based stop and search operations, intelligence led action against habitual knife carriers, and test purchase activity against sellers of so-called status weapons. We are also increasing our engagement activity including educational inputs and community events.

Detective Chief Inspector James Bray, CID Proactive lead for Hackney