News / Crime
Police boss denies Bristol is ‘hub of violent crime’
A senior Avon & Somerset Police officer has denied that Bristol is a “national hub of violent crime” despite a spate of recent stabbings.
Superintendent Mark Runacres, police commander for Bristol, admitted the murders of several teenagers had damaged the city’s reputation.
But compared to other major English cities, fewer violent crimes are committed in Bristol.
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The rate of violent crimes per population is higher in Newcastle, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, according to police figures, but lower in London.
However, recent data also shows that the number of knife crimes in Bristol shot up in 2024 to 1,953, rising by 26 per cent from the 1,553 recorded the previous year.
Runacres said: “The tragic incidents we experienced with Max and Mason being stabbed, and then just over two weeks later Darrian Williams losing his life in Rawnsley Park, those two headline incidents clearly threw a spotlight on the city.
“We’re all aware of the national headlines they brought.
“They were completely unconnected. In terms of the thematic and underlying issues around young people carrying and using knives, of course there are links.
“But there was nothing directly linking why those two incidents happened so closely to each other in the calendar.
“In terms of the reputational impact for the city, that was hugely significant and really damaging.
“It didn’t reflect, as was reported, that Bristol was this hub of violent crime nationally, that necessitated the level of concern that existed from that.
“We’re a big city, we have all of the challenges around all of the issues that feed into serious youth violence, around deprivation, exploitation and the harms that drugs markets can bring.
“Our position is in fact better than many other cities of equivalent size and makeup.”
Tributes on West Street to Darrian Williams, 16, who died after being attacked in Rawnsley Park in Easton – photo Ellie Pipe
While knife crime is rising across the country, two factors contribute to the recent increase in Bristol.
Avon & Somerset Police are focusing more on recording data properly about offences where knives are involved, leading to better quality data and making year-on-year comparisons not quite like-for-like.
But rising tensions among gangs in the city also played a part.
Runacres added: “Particularly in east Bristol, there was a fairly steady increase in knife-related offences. I can talk more freely about it now that the trials have played out.
“There were links between the offences which were committed in the latter part of 2023 and 2024, that fed into rising tensions relating to young people involved in or at risk of serious youth violence.
“We’ve been able to then focus our efforts to identify young people at risk, either as victim or perpetrator, and make sure we’re doing effective work through schools or other providers, to manage down that risk and get them engaged in more positive activity – as well as doing targeted enforcement on those who we have intelligence are carrying knives.
“If we’re doing more police operations, then we will find more knives. But that was driven, initially, by an increase in offending.”
Superintendent Mark Runacres admits there is an “open drugs market” on Stapleton Road in Easton – photo: Hannah Massoudi
Community cohesion is another focus of the police’s work, and getting the help of locals in reducing levels of crime. One example is Stapleton Road in Easton and the “open drugs markets” there.
“There’s some work we’re progressing as a partnership around a stretch of Stapleton Road, trying to address some of the underlying issues that emanate from the open drugs markets in that area of the city,” said Runacres at a meeting of the public health & communities policy committee at City Hall.
“We’re developing the plan in a way that’s really engaged and connected to the local community.
“So it’s not agencies that are delivering this work, with the best of intentions, for the good of the community; but it’s the community that’s guiding us and supporting us as we do what we can together, to address these underlying issues and achieve sustainable improvements.”
Drugs act as a “serious driver” for a lot of the youth violence in Bristol, with young people hired to run drugs around the city.
As drugs are sold on the streets openly in parts of east Bristol, that visibility adds to the risk of conflict between competing groups, Runacres said.
Elsewhere in the city, the markets are still run by organised crime, but violence and dealing are less visible.
Another driver is the lack of alternative opportunities for young people, with the lure of lucrative income from getting involved in drugs and gangs attracting many.
Runacres mentioned an event at the Malcolm X Centre in St Paul’s held after Dontae Davis was stabbed in 2021: “There were lots of single mums who were talking about the challenges they face.
“Their teenage sons are coming home wearing expensive trainers and clothes, that they know they wouldn’t have been able to afford with money gained from legitimate purposes.
“They were really struggling, some of the ladies I spoke to that evening, with how to manage the positive influence they wanted to exert over their sons.
“They can see it happening before their eyes: their sons are being drawn into likely criminality through their lack of other opportunities.”
Main photo: Mia Vines Booth
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