Incidents involving weapons in Leeds schools up by a third, West Yorkshire Police crime figures reveal

That is the view of Detective Superintendent Damon Solley, who leads West Yorkshire Police’s dedicated programme to tackle serious violence and knife crime.

His team works closely with the county’s recently formed Violence Reduction Unit, which funds a number of projects with young people and in schools.

But Operation Jemlock is very much about proactive policing out in communities and the most serious types of violent crime.

“Quite clearly we’re not able to stop every knife incident and attack, but we’ve had some fantastic successes so far,” Det Supt Solley said. “It really centres around the communities and the hotspots where we have incidents of serious violence and knife crime.

“We really don’t focus on schools, other than those which are in hotspot areas, and our patrols are exclusively in the evening.”

He is clear though that the team would want to be involved from the outset and work alongside the force’s Safer Schools officers if there was a particular issue with knife crime in any school.

Police data, released to the Yorkshire Evening Post following a Freedom of Information request, shows there were 81 incidents involving bladed articles or offences weapons and threats to use them in Leeds schools during 2019.

It marked an increase of a third on each of the previous two years, when 61 offences had been recorded by the force.

The 2019 figure includes 45 instances of someone possessing a blade or point on school premises, nine of threats being made with such an article, and 27 of possessing an offensive weapon.

Det Supt Solley said that it was natural for their to be a correlation between any rise in the carrying of knives by young people in general and cases where this happened in schools.

“Obviously we are seeing an increase in the carrying of knives,” he said. “We have done over recent years. It’s a societal thing.”

He links it to a change in the way young people associate with a gang mentality, with a whole host of reasons leaving some to believe they should carry a knife.

He said: “There’s a misconception to think you need one to demonstrate that you’re a person to be reckoned with. Young people think there’s a need to show that if you’re involved in criminality, you’re not to be taken lightly.

“The problem from our perspective is you’re so much more likely to be injured if you carry a knife than if you don’t. Our message to young people is it’s never the right option to carry a weapon or knife.”

Operation Jemlock itself is about visible and proactive policing, using intelligence to guide the work and refreshing that understanding on a daily basis.

As such, it forms a key strand of the combined approach being taken by the force to address violence and the carrying of knives.

Det Supt Solley said: “We’ve got lots of work going on for early intervention and diversionary work which is designed to try and divert young people away from criminality and, in particular, carrying weapons and violence.

“But there’s also a place, of course, for enforcement and the public would expect us to carry that out.”

For him, the key point to remember is that 81 incidents in the 160 schools in Leeds across an entire year does not indicate a significant issue.

“The numbers are absolutely tiny really when you consider it,” he said. “What we haven’t got is huge swathes of kids going into school every day with a knife, fortunately.

“There’s a lot of young people who are involved in criminality, carrying weapons and violence, and you won’t see them in school.

“What you might see is young people taking a knife into school if they are on the fringes or think it will boost their reputation.”

In those cases, it is important that the police work alongside others to understand the reasons and individual circumstances.

Det Supt Solley said: “It’s important we take the right approach with these young people. They may not be hardened criminals.

“Clearly, to put them into the criminal justice system as a potentially violent individual might be inappropriate. It’s a very difficult balance to strike when you’re dealing with parents and school staff. It’s not always easy.”

Also in crime: Leeds school crime figures reveal council ward with highest offences​

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