Bristol knife crime: Two 'street gangs' identified by NCA

Supt Mark Runacres said the force has worked with the National Crime Agency to identify two urban street gangs in Bristol

Two "urban street gangs" have been linked to the rise of knife crime in Bristol, a police chief has said.

Supt Mark Runacres, from Avon and Somerset Police, said the National Crime Agency (NCA) is aware of the two organised crime groups.

Data showing the hotspots for serious knife crime suggest they are operating mainly in the east Bristol area.

The unnamed gangs have not been linked to the fatal stabbings in Knowle West.

"What happened in that awful incident - that had no links to any other wider and ongoing risk of serious violence," Supt Runacres said.

Councillors on the communities scrutiny commission at Bristol City Council were given an update on community safety during a meeting on Tuesday.

Floral tributes were left following the stabbing in Knowle West

Supt Runacres explained that recent work by the force with the NCA has recently confirmed the two urban street gangs, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"What we've had in east Bristol more recently, there are connections between those incidents," he said.

"People sometimes shy away from using the word gangs, but we have two urban street gangs in Bristol that have been confirmed by the National Crime Agency."

He added that young people involved in those gangs present a "very high level risk of serious violence".

"I'm fairly sure that their existence will be behind the very stark increase that we've had in serious violence involving knives in the last 12 to 18 months," he said.

Avon and Somerset Police has said it will increase its patrols over the next three months

The superintendent said the force would have a challenge in how they tackle the problem.

"One of the challenges is that we need to understand how we look to deal with that, because demographically the profile of many of the young people that we are likely to target through that work will be young black boys and young black men," he said.

"That's going to compromise our efforts to tackle disproportionately - we have to be very careful how we do that."

Christina Gray said it is "really important that we’re working with and for the communities"

Christina Gray, director of public health and communities at Bristol City Council, said the problem of knife crime can not be solved by the police alone.

She said young people were sometimes carrying knives due to fear and that the city could only tackle the issue "together".

"It's really important that we're working with and for the communities, with and for those young people, so it's a communities-first approach," she said.

"We can only do this as a city, we can only do it if we do it together, and if we've got respect from the communities at the heart of this.

"We cannot police our way out of this."

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