Latest news straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Violent crime, including murders and knife crime, continues to rise in West Midlands.

There were 84,039 violent crimes recorded by West Midlands Police in the year to September 2019, according to figures released this morning.

That was a 27% rise in a year, from 65,914 violent crimes a year before.

This is a much faster rise than for crime generally, up by 7% from 244,527 in the year to September 2018 to 262,188 in the year to September 2019.

The latest figures included 48 homicides across West Midlands, up from 44 a year before.

This bucks the national trend, which has seen numbers of homicides fall in the most recent year across England and Wales - mostly driven by London and the south of England.

Of the homicides recorded in West Midlands, 21 involved a knife or sharp object, the same number as a year before.

The area continues to see rising levels of serious crime involving a knife, including murder, attempted murder, assaults, threats to kill, robberies, and rape and sexual assaults.

(Image: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

There were 3,649 incidents in the year to September 2019, up from 3,108 a year before.

That’s a 17% rise in a year, with numbers of crimes up by a fifth from 3,018 in the year to March 2011, when figures began.

Across England and Wales (excluding Greater Manchester), police recorded 617 homicides in the year ending September 2019, a 6% fall from 654 compared with the previous year.

Stay up to date with live updates from your postcode area Looking for the latest news in your postcode? We have launched a brand new website InYourArea.co.uk allowing you to stay up to date with what's happening near you. It also has an app. Search the latest news, property listings, jobs, planning applications, public notices and more. To get breaking news sent to your phone, download the BirminghamLive app here.

The number of homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was involved decreased by a fifth (20%) over the year to 221 offences, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

The fall was driven in part by London, where the Metropolitan Police saw an 18% reduction to 71 homicides involving a knife or sharp instrument compared with the previous year.

While the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests both the overall level of crime and levels of violent crime remain stable, more crimes are being reported to the police.

Across England and Wales (excluding Greater Manchester), recorded crime (excluding fraud) rose by 7% in the year to September to 5.0 million reports.

However, the number of violent crimes reported to police rose by 13% to 1.6 million.

Police Federation National Chair John Apter said, “Until policing has the resources it needs these increases in recorded crime will continue to increase.

“Society has become a more violent place and the police cannot and should not be expected to fight this crime epidemic alone.

“Policing needs more resources; the criminal justice system needs more investment and we need more prison places to ensure the most violent offenders are behind bars.

“The Government’s funding announcement for policing was a move in the right direction, but it goes nowhere near enough on undoing the damage from the past decade of government cuts.”

Following the implementation of a new IT system in July 2019, Greater Manchester Police have been unable to provide police recorded crime data to the ONS.