Knife crime advice letters hand-delivered to Wellingborough parents

Parents of children believed to be involved with knife crime in Wellingborough will be visited by police officers this week.

As part of a week of action tackling serious violence, officers from the town’s Neighbourhood Policing Team will be knocking at the front door of more than 20 homes during the course of the week.

They will be visiting the homes of children who police believe are involved in knife crime but where there is insufficient evidence to launch criminal investigations or refer to intervention programmes.

The letters will be hand delivered by police officers who will encourage parents and guardians to have conversations with children about the dangers and potential consequences of knife crime.

Information and advice about what to look out for is shared in the letter as well as details of support services including CIRV, the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence which focuses on tackling knife crime and gang culture.

Chief Inspector Tom Thompson is leading the week of action. He said: “Tackling serious violence is a matter of priority for Northamptonshire Police and this week we’re focussing our efforts in Wellingborough to do all we can to reduce the number of incidents that take place in the town.

“Serious violence can include assault, robbery and knife crime and throughout the week we’ll be taking action to address the issue using a number of tactics.

“One piece of work we’re delivering is knocking on the front doors of the homes of young people who we believe may carry knives or be involved in knife crime but as they haven’t been found to have committed an offence can’t be referred to intervention programmes.

“We already do a lot of work with children who have been found by police with knives or who have committed knife crime offences, but we’re now trying to work with young people who haven’t yet taken the step of committing knife crime related offences.

“There’s lots of reasons why children may decide to carry a knife - they think everyone else is, it will give them protection or it’s a cool thing to do. However, we know that if you carry a knife, you’re at an increased risk of either using the knife or having it used against you, potentially with fatal consequences.

“We want to do all we can to reduce knife crime in Northamptonshire and hope that those parents and guardians we speak to over the coming days will join us in providing support to their children to help divert them away from this criminal behaviour.”

Ch Insp Thompson added the Force will be following up with parents in around a month to see how they are getting on, and to help evaluate the initiative.

Useful links for parents who may be concerned about knife crime:

• CIRV contains a self-referral link for parents and guardians
• Fearless a branch of Crimestoppers, aimed at helping young people
• Action For Children provide useful advice on how to start a difficult conversation with your child
• Ben Kinsella Trust includes a guide for parents which can be downloaded for free
• Northamptonshire Police lots of useful information and advice about knife crime
• Off the Streets NN CIC – a local charity who have secured funding for the placement of knife amnesty bins and bleed bags across Northamptonshire. You can find out more about what they do on Facebook