Ill-gotten gains seized to help battle Leeds' growing knife crime problem

THE ill-gotten gains of criminals are to be used to tackle West Yorkshire's growing knife crime problem.
A StreetDoctors session in actionA StreetDoctors session in action
A StreetDoctors session in action

More than £2m seized from crooks has been ploughed into local community projects since 2014, with a further £166,000 being dished out at an event tonight.

Now police commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson has said that with violent crime on the rise locally, the next round of funding, which opens for applications next month, will be dedicated solely to projects helping to tackle the issue at its roots. He said knife crime “devastates lives” and needed to be tackled through preventative work.

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Mr Burns-Williamson said projects tackling knife crime had already been receiving some of the Safer Communities funding, including those winning grants today.

This includes West Yorkshire Police’s own knife crime prevention project, which is being awarded £3,500 to target 1,800 ten and 11-year-olds in primary schools in the most vulnerable areas of Leeds, where knife-carrying was described as “endemic”.

Another project to benefit is StreetDoctors, a team of volunteer student medics who meet young people most at risk of encountering violence and give them key first-aid skills so they can treat people who are bleeding or unconscious.

Joint medical director Emma Brooks said the £4,500 grant would fund 25 sessions across West Yorkshire.

She said: “The ultimate take-home message is, ‘You can be a life-saver’.”