The Prime Minister said he wants to reclaim the streets from violent gangs and, in an interview with The Sun, backed zero-tolerance policing strategies being rolled out in a dozen British towns with the highest levels of violent crime.
“There are boundaries you cannot cross – and one is this country’s zero tolerance on knives,” he said.
“Where police have previously been cautioning people, there now has to be a presumption of prosecution.”
Liverpool, Manchester, London, and Birmingham are all adopting the hard-line approach and it is thought police officers will be told to prosecute anyone carrying a knife, regardless of their age.
Mr Brown also called for a total ban on the most lethal hunting knives and said attitudes to carrying weapons must be changed.
“It is neither cool, nor does it make you safer, to carry a knife. We must ease people’s fears,” he said.
“They deserve freedom from fear about their safety on the streets.”
The Prime Minister’s intervention follows a string of fatal stabbings – including three over Christmas and New Year – and is expected to be backed up by the Government’s Violent Crime Action Plan, which is due to be unveiled by the Home Secretary next month.
The major policy initiative is likely to recommend an increase in the number of searches conducted by police and a greater reliance on evidence from CCTV cameras.
Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair has reportedly told his officers not to caution those found carrying knives in certain high knife-crime areas in the capital.
