Knife crime (FOI Rf: 619/26)

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FOI Request Reference: 619/26

Thank you for your request for information, received 6/3/2026

Request

For the period 2022 to 2025 full calendar years please provide:

Q1: All recorded knife crime offences in the West Midlands area – please state the offence titles (for clarification: I mean all knife crime offences that fall under crimes with physical harm of some sort, those being murder, manslaughter, rape (all), and robbery. 'Other sexual offences' refers to all non-rape sex crimes (e.g. 'sexual assault on a male/female under XX'), while with 'violence with injury' I'm referring to Section 47 ('actual bodily harm') and the more severe Section 18/20 ('grievous bodily harm'

For each offence, please include the following fields (or the closest equivalent held on your records management system):

1. Please provide month / year offence committed

Victim ethnicity - Self-defined ethnicity
Victim age band (e.g. "Under 18" / "18 or over" / actual age if banded differently)
Suspect/offender ethnicity (same coding as victim)
Suspect/offender age band (same as above)
Type of offence
NPU area

The above is the final after clarification that we received from you on 6^th March 2026.

Response

Please find enclosed our response.

It is important to know how we have searched for your data.

Knife Crime offences pertain to specific offences that involve possession of a knife such as the [Offence Class] 'possession of weapons'.

Instead, to satisfy your intention to receive records for offences where a knife is involved causing harm, the following criteria has been used.

[Weapon Usage] = 'Other Use', 'Used as a blunt instrument', 'Used as a threat', 'Used causing injury', 'Used causing no injury or damage', 'Used causing property damage only'

These [Weapon Usage] categories encompass all categories in this field with the exception of 'believed but not seen' and 'carried but not used'.

All of the relevant [Weapon Usage] categories above have been included with intention to provide records for offences where a knife was used. The provided data will cover all available records as the original request was obfuscated when it comes to targeting specific offences or offence categories.

In accordance with the agreed 'knife crime' criteria that informs which weapons are considered 'knives' for the purpose of answering FOI requests the following [Weapon Type Groups] & [Weapon Descriptions] have been used.

[Weapon Type Group] = 'Knife', 'Other projectile weapon', 'Other sharp/bladed weapon'

[Weapon Description] = 'Axe', 'Broken Bottle or Glass', 'Combat Knife', 'Craft Knife', 'Cross Bow', 'Dagger', 'Flick Knife', 'Kitchen Knife', 'Knife - Unknown', 'Lock Knife', 'Machete', 'Meat Cleaver', 'Pen Knife', 'Razor Blade', 'Scissors', 'Screwdriver', 'Sharp Instrument', 'Sword', 'Zombie Knife'.

Q1: All recorded knife crime offences in the West Midlands area – please state the offence titles (for clarification: I mean all knife crime offences that fall under crimes with physical harm of some sort, those being murder, manslaughter, rape (all), and robbery. 'Other sexual offences' refers to all non-rape sex crimes (e.g 'sexual assault on a male/female under XX'), while with 'violence with injury' I'm referring to Section 47 ('actual bodily harm') and the more severe Section 18/20 ('grievous bodily harm'

1. Please provide month / year offence committed

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2022	632	631	652	738	801	817	808	833	729	797	689	655
2023	816	709	800	726	748	773	769	638	721	776	723	675
2024	620	638	701	713	700	685	670	678	639	598	568	540
2025	572	487	616	566	574	690	643	609	572	588	526	567

Victim ethnicity - Self-defined ethnicity
Victim age band (e.g. "Under 18" / "18 or over" / actual age if banded differently)

Ethnic Description (Self Assessed)	-	0-4	5-9	10-14	15-19	20-24	25-29	30-34	35-39	40-44	45-49	50-54	55-59	60-64	65+
-	113	54	138	1165	1991	1553	1370	1168	1052	906	712	572	424	288	400
African	-	-	-	26	100	80	97	91	64	81	51	42	15	4	2
Any Other Asian Background	-	-	-	28	66	90	72	66	64	48	38	25	12	3	2
Any Other Black Background	1	-	-	5	44	39	30	33	27	28	26	22	17	11	2
Any Other Ethnic Group	-	-	1	11	32	27	43	38	38	31	19	15	2	2	2
Any Other Mixed Background	-	-	-	21	48	38	19	18	26	17	10	9	5	2	-
Any Other White Background	-	-	1	20	54	53	55	69	84	66	55	25	19	8	3
Arab	-	-	-	-	4	8	3	4	3	1	1	-	1	-	-
Bangladeshi	-	-	1	4	27	37	37	27	35	29	18	18	3	4	-
Caribbean	-	-	-	42	183	121	100	107	143	114	79	63	58	34	12
Chinese	-	-	-	-	1	2	2	2	1	3	2	1	2	-	-
Gypsy or Irish Traveller	-	-	-	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Indian	-	-	1	9	35	49	89	93	82	127	104	59	33	18	21
Not stated	4	2	11	147	406	376	362	332	289	241	144	155	104	78	72
Pakistani	1	2	1	69	223	324	255	224	228	203	139	73	25	16	15
White And Asian	-	-	1	9	21	32	26	17	19	12	6	5	2	-	3
White And Black African	-	-	-	3	10	6	5	5	5	1	5	1	-	-	-
White And Black Caribbean	-	-	-	52	152	86	88	95	103	45	26	11	8	2	2
White British	2	5	14	359	867	852	932	1263	1162	918	637	505	311	202	161
White Irish	-	-	-	4	7	8	18	20	23	27	10	7	9	2	2

“-“indicates no records

Please note this ethnicity and age is where it has been recorded / provided.

Suspect/offender ethnicity (same coding as victim) & 5. Suspect/offender age band (same as above)

Ethnic Description (Self Assessed)	-	0-4	5-9	10-14	15-19	20-24	25-29	30-34	35-39	40-44	45-49	50-54	55-59	60-64	65+
-	79	3	17	224	188	144	94	123	115	81	64	40	39	28	49
African	1	-	-	55	238	135	158	78	58	46	29	23	14	4	2
Any Other Asian Background	-	-	-	29	103	76	81	64	63	45	31	18	2	3	5
Any Other Black Background	-	-	-	15	85	62	34	39	30	26	19	20	7	3	1
Any Other Ethnic Group	-	-	-	6	57	31	42	49	22	28	21	9	1	3	4
Any Other Mixed Background	-	-	-	23	69	37	17	32	27	20	16	6	-	-	1
Any Other White Background	-	-	1	22	89	57	69	63	72	59	44	15	15	6	4
Arab	-	-	-	-	5	3	5	9	6	4	-	-	-	1	-
Bangladeshi	-	-	-	2	53	25	25	20	20	15	18	3	1	4	2
Caribbean	1	-	-	103	367	202	180	111	126	124	100	53	41	37	28
Chinese	-	-	-	-	2	3	1	1	1	2	1	2	2	-	1
Gypsy or Irish Traveller	-	-	-	4	18	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Indian	-	1	-	14	61	49	55	71	69	51	65	60	28	6	10
Not stated	1	-	1	33	105	53	57	46	46	20	21	6	8	8	8
Pakistani	3	-	-	82	423	276	185	135	167	112	72	48	14	6	5
White And Asian	-	-	-	7	29	22	17	24	9	11	1	1	1	-	1
White And Black African	-	-	-	6	36	11	12	4	3	1	-	2	1	-	-
White And Black Caribbean	-	1	1	101	278	126	104	99	68	59	25	9	15	3	2
White British	1	-	3	387	877	694	718	859	815	635	352	284	186	89	79
White Irish	-	-	-	10	17	19	12	18	20	18	13	7	3	3	5

“-“indicates no records

Please note this ethnicity and age is where it has been recorded / provided.

Type of offence

Offence sub class	Offence category	2022	2023	2024	2025
Arson	Totals	4	7	4	3
	Arson endangering life	-	1	3	-
	Arson not endangering life	4	6	1	3
Bicycle theft	Totals	1	-	-	3
Bicycle theft	Theft or unauthorised taking of pedal cycle	1	-	-	3
Burglary - business and community	Totals	28	42	36	37
	Aggravated burglary - business and community	21	32	23	26
	Attempt burglary - business and community	1	3	4	1
	Burglary - business and community	6	7	9	10
Burglary - residential	Totals	194	49	-	-
	Aggravated burglary - residential	117	27	-	-
	Attempt aggravated burglary - residential	41	11	-	-
	Attempted burglary - residential	14	3	-	-
	Burglary - residential	22	8	-	-
Criminal damage	Totals	766	806	698	690
	Criminal damage residential	153	162	123	130
	Criminal damage to a building – business	18	24	21	17
	Criminal damage to a vehicle	488	498	477	455
	Other criminal damage	99	117	72	82
	Race or religiously aggravated criminal damage	8	5	5	6
Homicide	Totals	20	15	10	11
Homicide	Murder	20	15	10	11
Interfering with a motor vehicle	Totals	3	2	3	3
Interfering with a motor vehicle	Interfering with a motor vehicle	3	2	3	3
Misc crimes against society	Totals	24	28	19	28
	Obscene publications etc	-	1	-	-
	Offender management act	1	1	-	-
	Other notifiable offences	1	1	4	3
	Perverting the course of justice	6	3	2	7
	Threat intent to commit criminal damage	16	22	13	18
Other offences public order	Totals	30	25	28	17
Other offences public order	State or public order	30	25	28	17
Other sexual offences	Totals	13	15	15	13
	Causing sexual activity without consent	-	-	2	-
	Exposure and voyeurism	-	-	1	-
	Other misc sexual offences	1	-	-	1
	Sex activity with a per mental disorder	-	-	-	1
	Sexual activity child under 13	-	-	2	-
	Sexual assault on a f 13 or over	8	7	7	9
	Sexual assault on a f child under 13	2	1	-	-
	Sexual assault on a m 13 and over	1	5	3	2
	Sexual assault on a m child under 13	1	2	-	-
Other theft	Totals	15	8	9	11
	Blackmail	9	2	5	7
	Other theft	4	4	3	3
	Theft from an auto machine or meter	1	-	-	-
	Theft in a dwelling other auto machine	1	2	1	1
Possession of drugs	Totals	3	1	-	-
	Possess of control drugs (ex-cannabis)	2	-	-	-
	Possess of control drugs (cannabis)	1	1	-	-
Possession of weapons	Totals	1827	1831	1676	1657
	Other firearms offences	-	-	-	1
	Other knives offences	-	-	-	1
	Possess of article with blade or point	1737	1728	1579	1555
	Possession of firearms with intent	16	19	7	8
	Possession of other weapons	74	84	90	92
Public fear, alarm or distress	Totals	64	70	47	32
Public fear, alarm or distress	Public fear alarm or distress	64	70	47	32
Race or religious aggravated public fear	Totals	2	5	1	2
Race or religious aggravated public fear	Race or religious aggravated public fear	2	5	1	2
Rape	Totals	28	41	52	44
	Rape of a female aged 16 and over	23	29	43	33
	Rape of a female child under 13	1	2	2	1
	Rape of a female child under 16	1	6	4	2
	Rape of a male aged 16 and over	2	2	2	5
	Rape of a male child under 13	-	2	1	-
	Rape of a male child under 16	1	-	-	3
Residential burglary of a home	Totals	-	134	183	183
	Aggravated burglary residential (home)	-	107	157	167
	Attempted residential burglary of a home	-	7	9	7
	Residential burglary of a home	-	20	17	9
Residential burglary of unconnected building	Totals	-	6	8	3
	Aggravated burglary - residential (unconnected)	-	3	5	3
	Attempted residential burglary of unconnected	-	1	-	-
	Residential burglary of unconnected building	-	2	3	-
Robbery of business property	Totals	188	206	192	224
Robbery of business property	Robbery of business property	188	206	192	224
Robbery of personal property	Totals	1628	1889	1553	1077
Robbery of personal property	Robbery of personal property	1628	1889	1553	1077
Shoplifting	Totals	35	21	11	4
Shoplifting	Shoplifting	35	21	11	4
Stalking and harassment	Totals	364	285	270	217
	Controlling or coercive behaviour	104	81	97	92
	Harassment	181	124	98	56
	Malicious communications	12	21	17	23
	Race or religiously aggravated harassment	11	5	9	4
	Stalking	56	54	49	42
Theft from a vehicle	Totals	5	4	1	-
Theft from a vehicle	Theft from a motor vehicle	5	4	1	-
Theft from the person	Totals	3	2	-	-
Theft from the person	Theft from the person	3	2	-	-
Theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle	Totals	4	6	3	5
Theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle	Theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle	4	6	3	5
Trafficking of drugs	Totals	1	1	-	-
Trafficking of drugs	Trafficking of drugs	1	1	-	-
Violence with injury	Totals	2181	2058	1845	1631
	Assault with injury	769	701	534	473
	Assault with injury on a constable	4	17	9	14
	Assault with injury on an emergency work	5	6	-	3
	Assault with intent to cause harm	1328	1287	1247	1096
	Attempted murder	62	41	47	38
	Endangering life	6	-	-	1
	Race or religiously aggravated assault with injury	7	6	8	6
Violence without injury	Totals	1301	1256	1028	1055
	Assault without injury	643	632	520	537
	Assault without injury on a constable	9	10	8	18
	Child abduction	-	2	-	1
	Cruelty to children/young persons	59	56	44	35
	Kidnapping	65	66	55	32
	Modern slavery	4	5	4	2
	Race or religiously aggravated assault no injury	12	12	9	2
	Threats to kill	509	473	388	428
Violent disorder	Totals	50	61	58	60
Violent disorder	Violent disorder	50	61	58	60

NPU area

	Not recorded	Birmingham	Coventry	Dudley	Sandwell	Solihull	Walsall	Wolverhampton
2022	45	4,477	906	630	853	421	659	791
2023	59	4,541	890	566	997	354	703	764
2024	29	4,014	715	503	915	286	600	688
2025	11	3,677	631	497	792	291	553	558

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request may be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Consequently, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are considered when interpreting the data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of data which has relevance to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be considered when those data are used.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.

An abundance of funding and dedicated resources continue to be ploughed into reducing knife crime which remains a top priority for WMP. For many years WMP has seen some of the highest knife crime offences per 1,000 population. That has now changed, we no longer occupy that unenviable position as we continue to see sustained reductions. That’s down to some very intense work with our local partners and the support of the public.

The latest statistics serve to evidence the improvements people are seeing in their community. While recognising that any offence is one too many, people in the West Midlands are statistically now less likely to be a victim of crime.

It's essential that we all come together — police, schools, teachers, and parents — to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our young people.

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Knife crime (FOI Rf: 619/26)