00:00Knife attacks, a woman killed on Smallbrook Queensway, fireworks fired at buzzes near New Street and a teenager stabbed outside the Bullring have all landed in the same grid of streets within weeks.
00:15Police say knife crime is falling across the wider region, yet violence and sexual offences make up about a third of recorded crime in the city centre and most cases here end without a suspect charged.
00:27Those facts sit in plain sight alongside the extra patrols now running through the core of Birmingham.
00:33Before anything else, this comes down to how the city centre feels, the people moving through it.
00:39I've lived here my whole life so I kind of know what to stop for, what not to stop for, who to talk to, who not to talk to.
00:49And so I think for me, it's just about sort of getting out and just, unfortunately, I just have to sort of keep my head down and just keep going.
00:58I barely even, no offence to you, I barely even wanted to stop for you because I was like, oh, you know, things like that.
01:04So I think it's definitely, it's definitely kept, you've got to kind of keep your guard up, which is unfortunate, but yeah.
01:13It feels okay. I don't feel worried or threatened when travelling to Birmingham.
01:17I mean, also travelling to London and, you know, it's the same with that.
01:21I think the crime's everywhere you go nowadays.
01:23I'm okay. I'm just vigilant of what's happening around me, very cautious, but I won't stop doing what I do.
01:31Shop workers, bar staff, commuters and families all cut through these streets in different ways
01:36and their sense of place rarely shows up in crime charts.
01:40The figures tell you that weapon possession has risen since the pandemic
01:44and that the West Midlands carries one of the highest knife crime rights in the country.
01:49They don't tell you whether someone takes a different route to the station,
01:53leaves the shift sooner or treats certain corners differently after dark.
01:58The gap between official numbers and lived routine often reveals more about confidence
02:02than any statement from force headquarters.
02:06It would have been nice to have come at night time
02:08because I think it would be lovely to see to the night, but no, I think after dark,
02:12I think there's a bit of a no-no because the city centre, no.
02:15Any city centre? Yeah, yeah.
02:18It hasn't changed the way I use the part of Birmingham, but it's mainly think about what's actually going on in the city.
02:23It's appalling, it's disgraceful for all the local people.
02:27No, not really. No, it's just about being aware about your surroundings and what's going on around you, so no.
02:33Yeah, so I personally wouldn't sort of take any shortcuts.
02:38I kind of go where there's more people.
02:42I do find sort of down this way, once the sort of markets and things are closed,
02:48kind of stay away from this sort of general area, sort of either go round or go through if I can.
02:54That's the sort of things I do, but yeah.
Comments