"Knife wands" and bleed kits are being placed in police vehicles as part of the battle against violent crime in Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire.

There has been a 23.7% increase in knife crime in the Staffordshire Police area in recent months compared to the previous year, a performance report has revealed.

The city accounted for 341 reported incidents – 42% – of the area's knife crime during the 12 month period to August 2022, while the remaining 470 – 58% were in the county. Both areas saw an increased proportion of knife crimes, with a 3.6% rise in the city and an 18.7% rise in the county compared to the national baseline in 2018/19, the report said.

But police are fighting back, with events to raise awareness of the consequences of carrying knives and action to tackle repeat offenders and focus on hotspot locations. The force has received funding to place knife wands – hand held metal dectectors used for searches – in vehicles.

Chief Constable Chris Noble said: "We have seen some concerning increases in different parts of the county that we're working hard to understand why. Some are related to drugs – very often there's no particular pattern but knives are so readily accessible.

"We want to put bleed kits in police cars so we can respond, keep people alive and deal with some really traumatic injuries. All our armed response vehicles have trauma-capable staff in terms of dealing with some of the most significant injuries.

"We're doing knife sweeps in parks and we're looking to introduce knife wands in our vehicles as well so we can conduct more informed stop searches, which are going to be proportionate and appropriate. But it's ultimately about trying to send out a message that you cannot carry a knife and not have consequences about that."

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