Teenage boy charged with possession of knife

A 15-year-old boy has been charged after we recovered a knife in Birmingham city centre.

Officers from the Guardian Taskforce were conducting patrols when they spotted a teenager acting suspiciously in Stephenson Place on Friday 2 August. They recovered a combat knife and arrested a 15-year-old boy.

The teenager has subsequently been charged with possession of a bladed article. He will appear before Birmingham Magistrates Court on 20 August.

The force introduced dedicated teams to tackle knife crime in 2019.

Over the past five years Project Guardian has expanded to include teams specifically based to proactively deal with knife related crime, from bases in Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country.

In addition to the specialist teams, neighbourhood teams carry out specific patrols regularly based around data that indicates hotspots for knife crime and specific times that people are likely to be in the area in possession of a knife.