Carver Street: This is what police are doing to tackle violent crime on Sheffield street plagued by stabbings

Carver Street is currently one of the city’s worst-hit streets for violent offences. The Star has reported on four stabbings being carried out there in the last seven months alone.

The Star approached South Yorkshire Police to ask what the force was doing to curb such crimes from taking place on the busy Sheffield city centre street, which is lined with bars and clubs.

Chief Inspector for Neighbourhoods at Sheffield District, Gareth Thomas, said: “We acknowledge that when violent crimes happen it is extremely concerning for our local communities, and we have sadly seen a number of serious incidents occur on Carver Street in recent years.

“We are as appalled as anyone when these violent crimes occur in our city, and like many of our policing colleagues across the country, tackling violent criminality continues to be a priority. We have robust plans in place to tackle the ongoing issues we experience in our night time economy, and a great deal of work is currently taking place, proactively and at pace, to tackle violent crime as a whole.

“We have recruited additional Sergeants, PCs and PCSOs into our City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team and bespoke shift patterns have been designed to provide additional coverage into the night time economy. They are deployed to busy, key locations within the city centre, such as Carver Street.

“Through Operation Steel, our monthly days of action in Sheffield city centre, we also regularly deploy significant resources from across the force into the city centre and night time economy, to tackle issues in specific localities. We also regularly deliver Operation Sentinel in the area, which is our dedicated operation to identify predatory behaviour in the night time economy and safeguard vulnerable people.”

Chf Insp Thomas said that funding from the Home Office’s ‘Grip’ programme has been used to deliver a ‘hotspot policing’ initative across South Yorkshire, involving officers ‘operating regular foot patrols in micro-locations’.

He added: “A number of locations within Sheffield city centre are included within these patrol plans, in the areas where data analysis shows there is a risk of serious violence. We continue to work alongside partners at Sheffield City Council to look at additional measures to improve the area around Carver Street.

“I want to reassure everyone that helping people feel reassured and safe in Sheffield continues to be a huge area of focus. Our core purpose as a force is to protect the public and we are driving forward a partnership approach to tackling issues around violent crime in our city and continuously work to improve safety across our night time economy.

“We are stronger together, and we need to work collaboratively to bring an end to violent crime. I would encourage anyone who has concerns about safety in our city to get in touch and report information about crimes to us, however minor it may seem.

“Gathering information from local people is crucial in enabling us to identify patterns of offending, and if you feel uncomfortable speaking to the police directly, you can report information anonymously to Crimestoppers, either online or over the phone.”