Falling knife crime in the West Midlands welcomed by Chief Constable as ban on ninja swords begins

Chief Constable Craig Guildford was speaking after a report which showed how much the work by the force to arrest offenders and educate young people on the dangers of carrying a weapon had achieved results.

He said: “We’ve seen some impressive reductions in knife crime, which has the real-world impact of fewer lives being lost, and fewer families and communities being torn apart.

“While it’s certainly pleasing, there’s still a huge amount of work for policing and wider society to do to tackle this problem.

“It’s part of our ongoing commitment to make the West Midlands a safer place for everyone.”

The results said that crime involving under-25s where a knife has been used to threaten or hurt someone has fallen by 15 per cent since April 1, on top of an 18 per cent reduction throughout the whole of 2024/25.

The Government set up a dedicated police taskforce across seven forces last October to tackle knife robberies and the West Midlands has seen a drop of more than 25 per cent, the biggest drop of all seven forces.

In the West Midlands, the force has carried out repeated patrols in hotspot areas identified by studying crime trends and intelligence.

This includes the dedicated Project Guardian Taskforce which has teams across the force carrying out high-visibility policing alongside plain clothes work by officers trained to detect suspicious behaviour in people who may be carrying weapons.

The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper visited Birmingham city centre on Wednesday (July 30), where she saw Project Guardian at work, and heard first-hand from officers on the frontline.

She thanked officers for their efforts and said the force’s results were 'really impressive'.

She said: “These are devastating crimes that really destroy families and we need to make sure we keep up this progress.”

While in Birmingham on Wednesday, the Home Secretary also spoke to city centre neighbourhood officers and officers from Operation Fearless, which is targeting everything from anti-social behaviour to serious and organised crime, and heard from officers involved in targeting the illegal use of e-bikes which put pedestrians at risk in the city centre.

It comes as a ban on ninja swords takes effect on Friday, August 1 as part of Ronan’s Law, named after Ronan Kanda who was killed in Wolverhampton on June 29, 2022, in a case of mistaken identity, by two teenagers in possession of a ninja sword. 

Ahead of the ban, at least a thousand deadly weapons have been handed in following the country’s largest weapons surrender scheme to date.

Pooja Kanda, knife crime campaigner and Ronan's mother, said: “Ronan was just 16 years old when his life was stolen by a 22-inch ninja sword that should never have been so easy to buy.

“Ronan’s Law is not only a step towards justice for my son, but for every parent who wants to see their child come home safely. 

"This law is about saving lives, closing dangerous loopholes, and holding those responsible to account.”