A Salford journalism student quizzed the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police about knife crime in the city on a live national radio phone-in today.
The caller George Icke asked the Chief Constable, Stephen Watson, about three incidents of knife crime in Salford in the run-up to Christmas, within a one-mile radius – one directly opposite Pendleton Police Station at Salford Precinct.
He asked: “How can the people of Greater Manchester have confidence in the force when it’s happening in plain sight of police stations and officers?”
The Chief Constable said the proximity was “relatively incidental” but went on to say: “Your point is, I think, well made in the sense that we have too much knife crime in Greater Manchester.”
Mr Watson, speaking from Manchester on LBC, continued: “That’s why our stop-and-search is being so robustly conducted.
“We will have arrested 20,000 additional people in the last 12 months alone, and many of those are being proactively ‘had-up’ for knife crime offences and the like.”
He explained that officers were working to put more people through the courts and said: “The increase in charges and convictions is a direct result of what we see as so important.”
Mr Watson took calls from across the UK on national radio station LBC this morning, explaining some of the work that Greater Manchester Police is doing to increase public trust levels in the force, including climate protestors, institutional racism, and corrupt members of the force.
The Chief Constable also said policing in Salford would be reverting to a more traditional neighbourhood policing model.
He said: “The idea is to get people back in touch with every nook and cranny of every patch across Greater Manchester.
“I know they’re doing great work in Salford. They will want to do more and they will be equipped to do more because the operating model has been reformed.”
Listen to the exchange (audio – LBC/Global):
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