Teesside is the knife crime capital of England and Wales despite a drop in knife crime in the area.
Cleveland Police cautioned or sentenced 244 people for possessing a knife in 2014, according to new statistics released by the Ministry of Justice.
This works out as a knife crime rate of 50 for every 100,000 people living in the area and is the highest rate out of all 43 police forces in England and Wales, including the Metropolitan Police.
Despite Cleveland Police recording a relatively high rate of knife crime compared to other forces there has been a significant reduction in such offences over the past seven years.
Back in 2008 there were 433 cases of knife crime in the area at a rate of 89 crimes for every 100,000 residents.
The rate of 50 per 100,000 residents in 2014 represents a 43.8% drop since then.
Teesside knife crime campaigner Barbara Dunne, whose son Robert was stabbed to death in 2003, said: “I can believe that.
“I went out on the streets as part of a project looking for kids who carried a knife and we were inundated. I think with kids a lot carry them because of peer pressure.
“There’s always a source. They’re taking drugs or drinking alcohol, that interferes with their perceptions and that leads to anti-social behaviour. There’s also a lot of bullying and violence in schools.
“I don’t think you can tackle knife crime with just awareness. There’s always a source.”
Compared to 2013 there has also been a large drop, with the knife crime rate down by 9% from 55 offences per 100,000.
Chief Superintendent Glenn Gudgeon of Cleveland Police said: “The majority of law-abiding people don’t carry knives or other weapons, but there is a minority of people who continue to flout the law that we are putting before the courts.
“These figures relate to those occasions where we have detained people in possession of knives as opposed to those occasions when a knife has been used to commit a crime.
“Whilst the number of times that a knife has been used to commit a crime in Cleveland is in line with other forces, our focus is on protecting our communities from harm and we will take a robust approach to the offence of possession of a knife in conjunction with our colleagues from the Crown Prosecution Service.
“We will also continue to work with our partners to prevent violent crime and keep Cleveland safe.”
Throughout England and Wales as a whole there has been no change in the knife crime rate in the past two years with the rate in 2014 remaining at 32 offences per 100,000 - 15,782 offences.
This is the same rate as in 2013.
Over the past seven years there has been a significant reduction in knife crime in England and Wales.
In 2008 police recorded 28,370 knife crime offences at a rate of 59 per 100,000 of the population.
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