Publication from Caroline Russell: Letter to the Mayor on knife images in crime prevention communication

Dear Sadiq,

Knife images in crime prevention communication

Following our discussion this morning at Mayor’s Question Time, I am writing to forward the pre-print research recently published by University of Strathclyde in collaboration with the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. [1]

As I said this morning, this research indicates that showing distinctive or “flashy” looking images of knives might influence people to adopt knife carrying. It also shows that knife images have the potential to frighten susceptible young people into carrying knives for self-defence or prompt them in to carrying them because they think it is “cool”.

I welcome that your Violence Reduction Unit, like leading knife harm reduction charities, shows no images of knives on social media.

My recent research found that in the last year, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) circulated more than 2,100 images of knives on Twitter, as can be seen in the attached image.[2]

You said this morning that forthcoming academic research will “hopefully persuade the MPS…to change their stance”. In our discussion, I said that the publication of the Sheffield Hallam University research, that you referred to in your answer, is likely to be delayed for about six months until Easter 2022.

There is a growing understanding of the harm caused by sharing images of knives raised by young people, academics and knife harm charities. Will you use your influence as Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner for London, to call on the MPS to, at the very least, pause the sharing of images of knives on social media from MPS accounts until the research is published and a final decision can be made.

The harm of showing these images is increasingly clear. I understand the MPS needs to communicate to Londoners about their work in communities, but this must be done without the risk of prompting more Londoners to carry knives.

I hope you will make this case to the MPS without delay, to show young Londoners that we are listening to their concerns about this harmful practice.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Russell

Green Party Member of the London Assembly

The attached image in PDF format has a title of "Over 2,100 knife images shared by Met police accounts on twitter in 2020-21"

The background of the image is a map of London with a blue filter on it.

On top of the map are several boxes with screenshots of images of knife image tweets inside of them but in a small resolution so that the knives themselves cannot be seen.

The boxes are:

Hillingdon 23

Barnet 7

Harrow 10

Ealing 22

Hounslow 16

Richmond 10

Kingston 9

Brent 10

Westminster 36

Hamm & Fulham 2

Wandsworth 6

Merton 9

Enfield 57

Kens & Chelsea 3

Lambeth 4

Sutton 15

Hackney 19

Camden 21

Islington 8

Southwark 9

Croydon 30

Haringey 40

Tower Hamlets 31

Lewisham 11

Waltham Forest 50

Newham 20

Greenwich 21

Redbridge 26

Barking 36

Bexley 7

Bromley 20

Havering 24

Central Met Police twitter accounts:

@MetPoliceUK 15

@MPSFirearms 16

@MPSRTPC 82

@MetTaskforce 229

Including approx. 1,200 knife images shared by local ward team twitter accounts