Hot-spot Policing Needed To Catch knife Criminals - Huhne

1.30.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 11th Jun 2009

Commenting on today's government figures showing four out of five knife offenders are avoiding jail, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"The key issue is the failure to provide reassurance through visible policing and strong efforts to prosecute, convict and lock-up those who threaten others with knives.

"That means catching more criminals by putting more police on the streets in knife crime hot spots, identified using hospital data.

"Cardiff has shown how wounding can be cut by 40%, but three quarters of the country are still not applying these obvious lessons."