Violent crime falls in West Midlands - here's by how much
Data also shows an increase in recovering weapons and more positive outcomes being achieved for victims of violence.
Latest figures show the number of some violent crime offences in the West Midlands have reduced in the last two years.
The annual report of West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster shows recorded data for offences such as homicides, knife and gun crimes, domestic abuse and serious youth violence has reduced in the last two years.
Data also shows an increase in recovering weapons and more positive outcomes being achieved for victims of violence.
According to the statistics, there were 36 homicides in the year ending March 2026, a decrease of seven from 2024. Domestic related homicides fell from seven to two in the same period.
Serious youth violence fell from 7,393 in 2024 to 6,291 while knife crimes have dropped from 5,268 to 3,790 and gun crime has fallen from 576 offences in 2024 to 294.
The use of stop and search powers has led to the recovery of 1,035 knives in 2026 compared with 889 in 2024 while 110 guns were seized this year – six more than two years ago.
There was however a rise in violence against emergency service workers with 3,334 offences recorded in 2026, 300 more than in 2024. Violence against business workers remained at 526 recorded offences.
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) fell from 61,978 in 2024 to 51,943 in 2026 while domestic abuse fell from 56,162 to 53,331. Sexual violence, however increased to 12,073 in 2026 compared with 10,739.
Earlier this year, Natalie Queiroz, the PCC’s Victims Advocate, said while the VAWG figure was impressive on the surface, there needed to be a more in-depth look to see if issues such as under-reporting of crimes had resulted in the decrease.
She said the cut may be down to a decrease in confidence in reporting and also challenged police bosses to get ‘ahead of the curve’ and ensure these crimes are being properly investigated.
The report said: “Reducing violence remains a central priority of mine, with encouraging improvements across several high-harm offence categories.
“For example, violence against women and girls reduced by 16.19 per cent, while domestic abuse offences fell by 5.04 per cent compared with the baseline year.
“Positive outcomes also improved considerably, increasing to 14.13 per cent for violence against women and girls’ offences and 13.02 per cent for domestic abuse.
“Serious youth violence reduced by 14.91 per cent, alongside a 23.7 per cent reduction in associated harm, demonstrating continued progress in preventing violence and protecting vulnerable people.
“Policing and partnership activities continued to focus on disrupting violent offenders and removing weapons from communities.
“Although, recorded sexual violence across the West Midlands has increased by 12.42 per cent. This has been driven primarily by a rise in ‘other sexual offences,’ which includes sexual assaults.
“These increases are largely attributable to changes in crime recording practices linked to the introduction of new sexual offences under the Online
Safety Act 2023, therefore, ongoing monitoring is required to understand performance over the next year.
“However, the overall picture demonstrates continued progress in reducing serious violence and improving justice outcomes.”