Digital Newsroom Assignment 2

Kids say ‘no’ to knives

A group of young offenders in Preston have made a series of stark films carrying the blunt message, “Don’t carry a knife.”

The youngsters and staff from the Youth Offending Team (YOT) joined together to make three short films – one about the importance of making the right decisions in life, another on finding fun things to do in Preston rather than troublemaking, and another warning youths about the dangers of knife crime.

Straight talking films

The upfront films, entitled ‘It’s Your Life’ include footage of young people interviewing senior police officers, the mother of a fatal stabbing victim, and a surgeon who carries out post-mortems.

Local boxing hero Michael Jennings, world welterweight boxing champion, also makes an appearance to speak about the time he and a friend were stabbed in the street, and the effect it has had on their lives.

Preston YOT workers Andy Winters and Jane Wignall worked with more than 20 young people to produce the knife crime film, entitled ‘It’s Your Life’, along with UCLan film production graduate Gary Coogan.
The project goes under the title of ‘stART Filming’ and follows the YOT’S successful stART art and writing project last year which was exhibited at the Museum of Lancashire.
“Don’t carry a knife”

Andy said: “It’s a fashion accessory to carry a knife, just like wearing a hoody is. I don’t think most young people who carry a knife ever intend to use them and that’s the problem – if they get into trouble and they’ve got a knife on them it could be used against them and that’s often the case.”

He added: “We’ve just got a clear message across which is, ‘Don’t carry a knife – if you carry a knife it could get you into trouble’.”

YOT worker Jeff Chandler, who helped make the film about decision making added: “I think knife crime is an issue nation wide. Young people are being tarred with the same brush when in fact it is the minority of young people who are involved with knife crime and carrying knives.”

“These films are hopefully going to be used to get young people to understand that by carrying a knife it could easily lead to it being used, either on other people or on themselves.”

Red carpet treatment

UCLan lent its Mitchell and Kenyon Theatre for the preview of the films in November, which was attended by magistrates, councillors and young people involved with the project.

Lancashire County Council’s Head of Children’s’ Services, Catherine Witt said: “We’ve done quite a lot of work with young people around art and development and so this was sort of the next stage. Anyone who attended the launch or watched the film saw that the children had been positively engaged with it and the messages were very strong and powerful. It was a very positive response really.”

She added: “This is part of an ongoing programme that the YOT are doing and it has been really successful. I think the strength is the involvement of the youngsters themselves.” Andy also added that the films had received “99% positive feedback” at the launch.

One young person who was involved with the project and asked not to be named said: “I think the films are good, if someone showed them at my school then I think people would pay more attention because it’s people our own age telling us about it.”

The project was at first produced on a shoestring budget; however the team have since been awarded £5000 of funding from the Preston City Council Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership.

The DVDs are to be distributed as a learning resource in schools across Lancashire, as well as in YOT offices by spring of next year.

Digital Newsroom Assignment 1

Putting Knife Crime into Perspective

Spates of stabbings have dominated the headlines in Lancashire in recent months, including the appalling knife attack of teenager Jessica Knight in a Chorley park.

The 14-year-old was horrifically stabbed up to 20 times and left for dead by another young person, sustaining life threatening wounds to her neck, abdominal area and chest.

June this year saw Lancashire creeping into the bottom of a Government league table as part of the Tackling Knives Action Programme, along with 10 ten other knife crime ‘hot-spots’ which included nearby Greater Manchester and Merseyside, as well as London.

Increased focus

£2 million pounds of resources has since been flooded into the 10 counties, in the hope that it will step up police efforts to rid the country of the thugs who commit these horrendous crimes.
The increased focus in tackling knife crime in Lancashire will include:

• Stepping up enforcement operations
• Targeting the most dangerous young people in each area
• Carrying out home visits and sending letters to parents if their children are known to carry weapons
• Working with A&E departments on information sharing
• Setting up or expanding youth forums to enable young people to have a say in local issues
• Clamping down on retailers who continue to sell knives to young people

“A national issue.”

But is knife crime really an issue here in Preston? Chief Superintendent Peter White, the Divisional Commander for Preston Police seems to think otherwise.

Speaking at a Face the People Safety Event, held by the Crime Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) in November, he said: “This has become a national issue and there is obviously a very serious problem in some parts across the country, especially London. Are the problems in Preston of that scale and magnitude? No, not by any means.”

He added: “Actually it doesn’t have to be a knife that’s used in order for it to be classed as a knife crime in Home Office statistics. It could be a bottle or any sharp instrument. So this isn’t about hundreds of people walking around Preston with knives in their pockets.”

Out of context

County Councillor Vali Patel, agrees that the issue of knife crime in Lancashire has been blown out of context. He said: “The issue of knife crime is not as bad as people may think, but there are always going to be incidents of knife crime in certain parts of Preston.

“There are a lot of good things going on in Preston and sometimes people forget this. When you think about the level of knife crime in Preston and compare it with other parts of the country such as Manchester or London, I think we are quite low.”

He added: “In the context of bringing the level of knife crime down, I think it really is about educating people that knife crime is not the way forward in terms of keeping yourself defended. If you carry a knife then you’re going to kill someone or you’re going to use it.”

Increase in offences

However, statistics show that in the 6 months since the Tackling Knives Action Programme began, knife crime in Lancashire has actually seen an increase:

• In the period June to November 2007 there were 408 offences involving a knife in Lancashire.
• 2008 has seen an increase to 427 offences involving a knife, with 197 of them taking place since the Tackling Knives Action Programme began in June.
• 66 deaths in the county are believed to have involved knives over the past decade.
• 263 people have been found to be carrying an article with a blade in a public place.


“Knife wielding hoodies”

Putting the issue into perspective, Lancashire Constabulary is the eighth biggest force in the country and so statistically would be expected to have a higher level of knife crime.

Chief Executive of the Lancashire Police Authority, Miranda Carruthers-Watt, echoed this thought, saying: “Statistically, the biggest chance of a knife being used in an incident is domestically in Lancashire. Lancashire is right at the bottom of the league table, and you’d expect to see it in the top 10 because of its size.”

“The perception that there are gangs of ‘knife wielding hoodies’ wandering the streets needs to be tackled and we need to accept that this isn’t actually the case.”

Shocking knife attacks


However one Preston resident, Richard Salinger, 21, a sales assistant from Fulwood, disagrees and said, “I think there definitely is a problem with knife crime in Preston, although I think a certain local newspaper does tend to blow it out of proportion whenever there’s an incident. I think that Lancashire is in that league table for a reason not because of its size.”

Several cases of shocking knife attacks in Lancashire have made the front page in recent times. Like Jessica Knight, whose trial is currently in progress, David Cornall was attacked in a park. He was found dead in Ribbleton Park, after being stabbed by Liam Cromie.

Shaun Higgins, 23, was stabbed at a party whilst trying to calm a heated argument.

The map below outlines some of the latest and high-profile cases of knife crime to hit Preston in recent months (Zoom out to see more)


View Larger Map

60,000 people have now passed through knife arches which have been set up in town centres throughout Lancashire, with 1456 people so far stopped and searched, and 46 knives recovered.

It is illegal to carry any knife other than a folding pocket knife with a blade of less than 3” and carrying a blade can lead to up to 4 years in prison.