Knife crime, assaults and ASBOs are running rife in Islington, as the borough becomes the third worst in the capital for criminal activity.
Figures obtained from the Metropolitan Police Service reveal that Islington is one of only three boroughs across London whose crime rate is above average.
With 2,155 crimes in February alone, Islington had the second highest crime rate of any borough, with 10.45 crimes for every 100,000 people. Westminster topped the charts with a crime rate of 15.92, and Camden came a close third at 10.44.
The data shows that a particularly concerning issue in the borough is violence against the person.
This is further echoed by government statistics released this week that reveal Islington to have the second highest number of knife related injuries and the third most teenage assaults in London.
In January 2015, seven people required ambulances because of stabbings. This is the second highest monthly number that the borough has seen since records began in 2012.
Additionally, 56 teenagers needed hospital treatment after they were assaulted and three local youths have been murdered in the last six months.
The figures follow last week’s crime summit, which called on residents to fight knife crime after a recent surge in youth violence and the murder of teenager, Alan Cartwright.
Paul Convery, the executive member for community safety and councillor for the Caledonian area, said: “I do not deny there are knife crimes in Islington and there has been an upturn in such offences. These sorts of crimes have been on the decline since 2012 but in the past year, the number has increased.
“Many of these offences were very public incidents with people being wounded in broad daylight on busy streets. This reflects a growth in some parts of the Borough of small street gangs, involved in a variety of cash generating acquisitive crimes and drug dealing.
“Over the past year, we have identified increasingly chaotic behaviour by these groups of people as they settle disputes using violent means.
“In total these crimes are committed by prolific offenders and we will shortly produce a plan of action with three main themes – building on prevention, enforcement and community response.”
The Metropolitan Police Service refused to comment.
All security officers that work in the area should wear stab vest and be able to use handcuffs and be given a little more power