New knife crime prevention orders will be introduced in London from next month to help the Met reduce the number of stabbings.
The powers will give police the ability to impose curbs, such as restrictions on the use of social media and a ban on associating with named gang members, on anyone aged 12 or over believed to be a regular knife-carrier.
Courts will be able to compel subjects to take part in education and anger management courses, relationship counselling, sports schemes, “life skills” sessions or drug rehabilitation programmes.
Critics have claimed the orders, being introduced in London ahead of the rest of the country on a 14-month trial basis, could criminalise young people before they have been convicted of any offence.
But policing minister Kit Malthouse said the new power could play a valuable role in reducing violence on London’s streets.
“The rise in serious violence across the capital is deeply concerning and we are doing everything we can to end to this senseless bloodshed,” he told the Standard.
He said the orders would provide “vital means to steer those most at risk away from serious violence and help young people to make positive changes in their lives, rather than being drawn into a life of crime.”
The rise in serious violence across the capital is deeply concerning
Kit Malthouse, policing minister
Met Commander Jane Connors said the orders would give officers a “valuable tactic in preventing violence” and would protect vulnerable individuals while helping to keep communities safe.
The power for police and prosecutors to apply to the court for knife crime prevention orders was contained in the Offensive Weapons Act passed by Parliament last year, following a request by the Met.
It was concerned that it lacked legal powers to help it divert young people away from knife crime before it was too late and has argued that the orders are a way of preventing, rather than causing, criminalisation.
To impose one of the orders, a court must be convinced that the person concerned has committed a blade offence at least twice.
It must also deem it necessary either to protect the public generally or any individual, including the person receiving the order, from the risk of harm.
