Northumbria Police's new chief vows to 'get ahead' of violent crimes following spate of teenage knife deaths

Vanessa Jardine, who has taken over the reigns of Northumbria Police, has pledged action after a string of high-profile murder probes across the region in recent months.

A spate of upsetting episodes includes the deaths of several teenagers in alleged stabbings – 15-year-old Holly Newton from Haltwhistle, 14-year-old Gordon Gault from Newcastle and 14-year-old Tomasz Oleszak from Gateshead.

Ch Cons Jardine has promised to make preventing serious crimes a top priority.

She said Northumbria Police “cannot keep doing the same things – we have to get ahead of demand” to stop incidents before they occur.

The new chief added: “There have been some heartbreaking, tragic incidents and my sympathies go out to all the family and friends of people who have lost loved ones.

“We need to be getting ahead [of serious violent crime]. We work in partnership with our Violence Reduction Unit and, if you are talking particularly about knife crime, we are working in schools with young people and trying to educate them about the dangers of carrying knives and the tragedy that it can cause.

“Sometimes young people tell us that they carry knives because it makes them feel safer or because it is a bit of a kudos thing. But what people, young people in particular, don’t realise, is the awful nature of knife crime and that using a knife can kill someone very, very quickly.”

Ch Cons Jardine added that her other top priority was “being there when people need us” – starting with answering 999 and 101 calls promptly.

Asked if residents across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland could still call their area a safe place to live after the succession of fatal incidents lately, she said: “Northumbria is absolutely a safe place to live – if you look comparatively with other forces, it is a safe place to live. But people need to feel safe being here as well.

“One of the things I am going to do in the next couple of months is go out into our communities personally, and the might of the Northumbria Police force, to talk to them, listen to them and understand the issues that matter to them.”