Cressida Dick says more officers and rise in stop and search had reduced stabbings and murders

The Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, has hailed big falls in violent crime in London in the past year, with fights over drugs, predominantly cocaine, playing a key part in the rise in the number of stabbings and homicides in the capital.

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She said double-digit reductions year-on-year for homicides and young people stabbed and injured were because of more officers on the streets, and a 30% year-on-year increase in stop and search.

Dick, comparing 2018-19 with the previous year, said the number of homicides were down 25% to 122, and knife injuries suffered by those under 25 were down 15% to 1,768.

It is a message she has been keen to get out for some time, but Dick and her advisers are aware that every time they try, their recitation of statistics and the message that London’s streets are getting safer, risks being overshadowed by another tragedy that generates headlines.

The latest came on Wednesday evening in Hackney, east London. Police are investigating the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old child on an estate, which happened while he was with friends. Police believe he was involved in a dispute with another group of youths, resulting in the death of the teenager. During the incident, a 16-year-old was also stabbed but survived.

Dick said: “It appears that these boys were with a group of other boys, and possibly a girl, young people together, and there’s some sort of confrontation with another group during which these two have been stabbed and sadly one of them has died.

“Each death is absolutely ghastly. Each young man stabbed is a horrible thing for them, their family, friends and community and for the person who did the stabbing. Often it wrecks their lives as well.”

Six out of 10 killings in London in 2018-19 were stabbings. Ten victims were shot. Eighty-three homicide victims in London were male and 37 female. People from African-Caribbean backgrounds were disproportionately represented, making up 42% of homicide victims in the capital.

The commissioner said violent crime was falling in London after tough measures were brought in to tackle criminal finances, but most crucially resources, such as officer numbers in the worst-hit areas, had been boosted.

Dick, asked why serious violence had risen, said: “It is very complicated. There are a whole number of things going on at once. Undoubtedly, the drug markets are a big part of the problem.

“There is big demand, there is lots of money to be made and lots of fights going on between drug gangs. And they have been using modern communications and other methods to recruit, groom, exploit young people into that trade. And many of those young people have then got tangled up in violence and have been the victim, or the offender, or both.

“But there’s a whole range of other social issues, no doubt, that’s played into this.

“I believe we are suppressing the violence … Having officers in the areas where there has been, or where there is, intelligence there is likely to be serious violence. It is a very important tactic, a very important way to suppress violence in that area.”

Dick said her officers were “continuously taking weapons off the street, continuously locking up the most violent people”, and said at any time half of alleged gang members in London were in jail or under judicial restriction.

But Britain’s most senior police officer added that big enforcement efforts achieved only “suppression” in the short term and long-term measures were needed.

Dick said: “I think the largest part of the reduction has come from massive enforcement efforts and those massive enforcement efforts have been helped by the public giving us information, coming out and helping us with weapons sweeps. I think we are making real progress.”

Official figures released last week showed one-third of all knife crime in England and Wales took place in London.

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Dick became commissioner in 2017 promising to bear down on violent crime, only to see it go up, driven by rising knife offences. She hailed £101m of seized assets from criminals, ranging from big-time criminals to medium-scale drug dealers.

In private, senior Met figures did not know the factors behind the rise in stabbings and homicides, though changes in the drug market caused by increased demand for cocaine and crack cocaine as well as increased supply in Colombia, the dominant producer, were key factors.

One senior police figure told the Guardian knife crime would fluctuate, with increases and falls occurring for years to come driven by a multitude of interlocking factors. Another said the Met and government theory that drug market changes were driving the rise in stabbing and killings was not borne out.

In truth, the police are one part of the temporary sticking plaster, able to suppress violence in the short term with certain tactics.