Last week I called the murder of three teenage boys in Birmingham a local emergency. This week murders in London and Manchester made this a national crisis. On Wednesday I joined other Chiefs at a meeting with the Home Secretary to discuss our response which was a very positive, energised meeting.

Meanwhile you have been working incredibly hard. From the staff investigating these crimes to officers carrying out searches in often difficult circumstances. I commend you all for stepping up to the challenge of protecting young people.

The citywide section 60 needed to send out a message: carrying weapons has become too frequent and people will be searched to protect our children. I think the message has been sent out loudly and clearly and has created some disruption. From today (Friday 8 March) our strategy will evolve.

The citywide section 60 will end but in parts of Birmingham it will continue as we have areas where we still need to keep at this. We will not be waiting for new intelligence or...

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Earlier this week, using a set of very carefully chosen words, Theresa May appeared to suggest that there was no connection between falling police numbers and rising violent crime.

She was wrong. 

Of course the rise in violence is not only about police numbers (there are a hugely complex combination of factors in play), but implying that there is no connection at all between those two things defies both common sense and the professional experience of thousands of police officers, my own included. 

And it isn’t the first time that she has been wrong about policing.

In 2010, in her first speech as Home Secretary to the annual Police Federation Conference, she stated that the job of the police was “nothing more, and nothing less, than to cut crime.” 

She was wrong. 

The job of the police is about so much more than just crime. It is about saving lives and finding lost children and responding to people in mental health crisis and dealing with car crashes and delivering unbearable news to families who have lost loved ones and ten...

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My phone has been ringing consistently in the last 24 hours – a succession of calls from journalists wanting to talk about Knife Crime, or to arrange radio and TV interviews to talk about Knife Crime. Prior commitments have meant that I’ve had to turn almost all of those requests down, but this is what I would have said given the chance:

(1) A Long Term Plan

We need a long term plan for dealing with knife crime – at least ten years, preferably twenty. We need to understand that, when problems have been a generation or more in the making, they might just take a generation or more to mend.

We have got to get beyond the relentless demand for quick fixes. The professional and effective use of police Stop & Search powers undoubtedly saves lives, but it is not the long term answer to anything.

(2) A Public Health Approach

We need to re-frame our understanding of violence, recognising that it is at least as much a public health issue as it is a crime problem. Violence is a disease that can be caught and transmitted....

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This last week has been one of the most violent and tragic weeks I have seen in my police service. The violence and the loss of young lives has scarred families and communities across the region and specifically in parts of Birmingham. My thoughts are foremost to the families suffering this huge loss.

Chief Constable David Thompson

We have seen six murders over the last two weeks. It is important to say these are very varied and the offending, while having tragic results, did not in most of these cases bring danger to the streets or a broader public threat. The number has simply been chance and has some very specific circumstances.

The murders of Sidali Mohammed, Abdullah Muhammad and Hazat Umar are very different. They are part of a broader picture of violent knife crimes involving young people we have seen in Birmingham, our region and indeed in many of our cities across the country. I am sure parents and young people have been very scared by these events.

While these matters are pending proceedings or under...

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