Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council are working alongside multiple partner agencies including Dorset Police and the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner under the Safer BCP partnership, on a campaign that tackles knife crime head on.
The first round of our Knife Crime Awareness campaign ran from Monday 15 April to Saturday 15 June 2024 with our second round due to run from Monday 16 September to Saturday 28 September 2024.
This initiative aims to raise awareness around knife crime, as well as the dangers and health implications of carrying a knife, educating young people through a series of events and activities over the eight weeks.
It also aims to recognise and celebrate our young people, those who help to make Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole a great place to be.
Through the campaign we’ll be promoting the support available to parents, local communities and businesses as well, highlighting the steps we’re taking to make our streets safer and eradicate fear – especially among vulnerable young people.
Adopting a partnership approach to tackling the serious issue of knife crime is key to creating safer communities and all partners share an ongoing commitment to reduce serious violent crime across the BCP area through early intervention and education.
#LivesBeforeKnives
#ChangesAreMade
Dorset is a safe place to live, work and play, with figures released by the Office of National Statistics earlier this year highlighting Dorset remains the seventh safest place to live in England and Wales*.
Most of the serious violent crime in BCP is committed by adults but SaferBCP is keen to focus on young people as part of a preventative model to deter young people from the outset to break the link between juvenile crime and disorder, and adult offending.
Our youth services worked with young people to come up with suggested slogans for this initiative, with #LivesBeforeKnives borne out of their ideas to front this campaign.
This high visibility awareness campaign was conceived, in part, following the tragic knife-related death of 18-year-old Cameron Hamilton in Bournemouth Town Centre last summer.
Cameron’s grandmother Tracy Jose, has been instrumental in this campaign from the outset, with the #ChangesAreMade slogan being created by her in honour of her grandson, Cameron.
#LivesBeforeKnives #ChangesAreMade aim to deliver a high impact awareness and education programme across the eight weeks with the work to continue throughout the year, helping make a real difference across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
All partners will be working closely together to share information, collaborate and plan, so we can target the interventions to prevent serious violence across our local communities.
Knife crime must stop. Full stop.
*This is based on police recorded crime data involving the use of knives and sharp instruments, for the year ending December 2022.