£190K from Home Office to be used to combat knife crime

Lincolnshire Police has secured £190,000 from the Home Office Homicide Prevention Fund which we will use to help reduce knife crime and homicides in the county.

Some of the money will be used to provide specialist training to officers and staff, teaching them more about tracking and deterring serious violent crime.

Additionally, training will help predict hot spots and identify people likely to be impacted by serious violence.

We will engage with vulnerable communities in Lincolnshire and work with the University of Lincoln, who will use focus groups and in-depth interviews to understand people’s views, fears, and experiences with knife crime.

The force will attempt to identify and target the people and places at the highest risk of serious violence.

All of this work will form part of Lincolnshire Police’s Think Sharp initiative – a prevention project which aims to reduce knife crime, weapon-based offences, and homicides.

D/Supt Suzanne Davies, serious violence reduction lead said: “I am really pleased to be able to work with the University and young people so that together we can reduce knife crime and homicides in Lincolnshire.

“This additional funding means that we can work in a different way; we have all seen the devasting impact these offences have on families and I would much rather prevent knife crimes and deaths than investigate them.”

Dr Anthony Ellis from the University of Lincoln said: "The University is really pleased to be working with Lincolnshire Police on this important new project aimed at reducing serious violence across the county."

Lincolnshire Police will work alongside the University of Lincoln over the next 15 months to engage with communities in the county, analyse the results and develop an intervention programme.

A pilot of this programme will then commence at three secondary schools in Lincolnshire, before the findings are combed over by experts.

The year’s work will culminate in the roll out of the Think Sharp scheme in December 2023.

More information will be released in the coming months.