Call for local hospitals to help tackle knife crime

12.14.22pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 30th Apr 2009

Councillor David Ward chair of the Bradford North Area Committee is calling on Bradford and Airedale Hospitals do their part to tackle knife and other violent crime.

Cllr Ward believes there is a strong case for hospital accident and emergency units and the police to work together to identify knife and violent crime blackspots.

And he points to the experience in Cardiff where information is routinely passed on to the police about locations where injuries caused by knife crime take place to back up his call for hospitals and police to work together.

As a result, police in Cardiff have been able to target the areas with the worst knife crime rates and have cut incidents by 40%.

Cllr Ward said,

"There is clear evidence that when hospitals help the police build up a picture of where knife crime is taking place, areas with high numbers of incidents can be tackled.

"When information is passed on by hospitals in an anonymised form, knife crime can fall by almost half. Unfortunately, the BRI collect the data but do not pass it on and Airedale did not respond to a Freedom of Information request made by the Liberal Democrats.

"I have written to both trusts strongly urging a change in policy so that the risk of knife crime in Bradford District can be cut. "