Greater Manchester Police given £1.8m in Home Office Knife Crime Concentration Fund

Greater Manchester Police has been awarded £1.8m as part of the Home Office Knife Crime Concentration Fund as it looks to increase police patrols, providing more CCTV and support during early prevention work in key hotspot areas.

The areas which fall across Greater Manchester will see focused activity with neighbourhood patrols working in tangent with local partners as well as their dedicated knife crime team Operation Venture. 

Since their formation in December 2022, Operation Venture has made a significant dent in criminality across the force area – making 1,242 arrests, recovering 402 weapons and removing them from the streets, seizing 687 vehicles and over £1m cash, and conducting 3753 stop searches with 1355 being positive (rate of 36 per cent) on key offenders up to August 30, 2026. 

The team move across different hotspot areas all over Greater Manchester, strengthening resources in districts to tackle violent crime and proactively looking to prevent, deter, reduce, and tackle knife crime head on, and at the root causes. 

Their work feeds into the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, a multi-agency team that seeks to prevent violence by addressing the underlying causes. 

The fund will also go towards tackling knife-enabled robberies and help to strengthen its newly created Robbery Tasking Team. This team, who are currently based in the City of Manchester, will be used across Greater Manchester to provide a visible deterrent and proactively target offenders.  

Detective Superintendent Rich Thompson who leads GMP’s response to knife crime and serious violence said: "We welcome this investment, which will help us focus activity on priority locations across Greater Manchester where knife crime causes the greatest harm. 

"Working alongside local authorities, community groups, businesses and other partners, we'll use the full range of policing tactics, prevention initiatives and long-term problem-solving approaches to tackle violence and keep people safe. 

“Officers and staff across the organisation have worked extremely hard to tackle the root causes of knife crime head-on and we’ve seen that reflected in recent statistics - knife-enabled serious violent crime is down 35 per cent with standout decreases being Tameside (down 51 per cent), Bury (down 47 per cent), Stockport (down 45 per cent) and Salford (down 44 per cent). 

“We want to continue this impact to make it sustainable and last well beyond the scope of the funding. 

"We also encourage the public and local businesses to continue supporting this work by sharing information, reporting concerns and helping us create safer communities for everyone." 

Kate Green, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Safer and Stronger Communities, said: “I am pleased to see that government is prioritising such an important issue and we welcome the additional funding. In Greater Manchester, we are committed to working with partners to tackle the root causes of violence, intervene early and create opportunities for young people, helping to prevent knife crime and the wider harms it causes. 

“The hard work of Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, Greater Manchester Police, and our partners across the city-region, including the community and voluntary sector, has already contributed to reductions in knife crime and serious violence, but there is still more to be done. This funding will enable additional action to be taken to keep our communities safe.”