Two 'street gangs' linked to rise in Bristol knife crime

Two "urban street gangs" in Bristol have been linked to at least some of the knife crime seen in the city in the past year, a police chief has said.

The gangs have not been named but Superintendent Mark Runacres from Avon and Somerset Police said the National Crime Agency is aware of the two organised crime groups.

Data showing the hotspots for serious knife crime suggest they are operating mainly in the east Bristol area.

The recent alleged double-murder in Knowle West is not thought to be linked to the same two gangs.

Councillors on the communities scrutiny commission at Bristol City Council were given an update on community safety during a meeting on Tuesday 27 February.

Mr Runacres said: “It’s a very different environment and space than in Knowle West and what happened in that awful incident.

"That had no links to any other wider and ongoing risk of serious violence. But what we’ve had in east Bristol more recently … there are connections between those incidents.

“There’s recently been some work we’ve done with the National Crime Agency.

"People sometimes shy away from using the word ‘gangs’, but we have two urban street gangs in Bristol that have been confirmed by the National Crime Agency.

“Young people who are involved in those gangs present a very high level of risk around serious violence.

"I’m fairly sure that their existence will be behind the very stark increase that we’ve had in serious violence involving knives in the last 12 to 18 months.

The superintendent said the force would have a challenge in how they tackle the problem.

“One of the challenges of that is that we need to understand how we look to deal with that, because demographically the profile of many of the young people that we are likely to target through that work will be young black boys and young black men.

"That’s going to compromise our efforts to tackle disproportionately. We have to be very careful how we do that.”

Police don’t believe that the stabbings of the two teenagers in Knowle West were linked to the two gangs in east Bristol.

The superintendent added: “In the days that immediately followed that incident, there were lots of rumours and speculation as to whether it was postcode-related conflict.

“I’m not from South Bristol, so for me South Bristol kind of exists in itself. The fact that there’s a rivalry for some between Knowle West and Hartcliffe, isn’t something that would have occurred to me previously.

“To have pride in where you live and that be part of your identity, that’s something I do understand.

"To go from that to perpetrating an offence of the nature of the offence that was perpetrated in Knowle West, that’s a huge leap. That’s what we don’t fully understand and is subject to the investigation.

“Feeling proud about where you live and having a perceived rivalry with somebody from another area is one thing.

"But going and committing a heinous crime is very much another thing. So we need to understand if there’s more that sits around what motivated the offenders to do what they did.”

Christina Gray, director of public health and communities at the council, said the problem of knife crime can’t be solved by the police alone.

Ms Gray said: “What we’ve been strengthening over the last six months is the multi-agency response. It’s really important that we’re working with and for the communities, with and for those young people, so it’s a communities-first approach.

"We can only do this as a city, we can only do it if we do it together, and if we’ve got respect from the communities at the heart of this.

“We cannot police our way out of this. We’ve got to come together as a city, as communities, to understand what the motivations are, and we need to be working with families.

"Certainly in central and east Bristol, young people are carrying knives because they are afraid or because they’re associating with another group.”