By Graham Huband

A TOP Tayside police officer has called for a sense of perspective over knife crime, saying fear of a blade culture was threatening to overtake reality.

Chief Superintendent Colin McCashey said last night there was no need for the public to fear being the victim of a knife attack as the numbers of incidents were small and had remained static over the past three years.

In the first seven months of the year there were 10 serious knife assaults recorded in Dundee—a city of more than 140,000 people.

Mr McCashey said a sense of perspective was required and he stressed the knife culture associated with gangs in cities such as London—where more than 20 young people have been stabbed to death this year alone—was not replicated on the streets of Dundee.

Dundee’s divisional police commander said in many cases victims of stabbings were known to their attackers and indiscriminate street assaults with knives were rare.

He said four out of five knife crimes which occur in Dundee are solved and measures such as the increased use of metal detectors to screen pub and club-goers were helping to combat the carrying of blades.

Mr McCashey, whose officers are investigating an early-hours robbery at knifepoint in Dundee city centre, said, “Since the beginning of the year we have had 12 serious assaults where glasses, bottles or knives have been used and 10 of those involved knives.

“In 20% of these cases these crimes were committed in a domestic environment and in about 50% of (all) cases the victim is known to the attacker.

“That does not diminish the seriousness of these crimes but puts it into context. It does not indicate that lots of people are carrying knives.”

Mr McCashey said the force had seen an increase in the number of reported knife crimes but he believed the surge was due to the present media spotlight on the so-called blade culture.

He said officers were far from complacent and were working hard to counteract the mindset—especially among young people—that the only safe way to go out on the streets was with a knife for protection.

Mr Mccashey said, “People may think carrying a knife is the cool thing to do, or it is something they need to do, and a lot of that is fuelled by some of the media coverage in England and Wales.

“I think it is difficult to make any comparison. What they are seeing down in England and Wales is a gang culture and we don’t have that gang culture here.

“What we want to say as a force is that there is no need to feel you have to carry a knife. There are no circumstances whatsoever where people need to have a knife with them. They should not bow to peer pressure and they should not be overly influenced by some of the coverage in the media.

“To the general public I would say knife crime is very rare here and they should not be going out thinking they are going to be a victim.

“Secondly, to those thinking about taking a knife out with them I’d say, don’t do it. Hand it in to the police or get rid of it.

“We see the levels of knife crime as being static and it is not something that should overly concern people.”