Sheffield saw “slight increase” of firearms discharges in first three months of 2022

Although South Yorkshire Police reported a 45 per cent decrease in firearms discharges during 2021, the figure has since crept back up.

A report to Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner states: “The armed crime team are working with Sheffield District to disrupt, deter and detect these offences and offenders.

“In the same time period, we have recovered 15 firearms, which is an increase on 2021, and the ongoing investigations sit with the armed crime team around these recoveries.”

The report adds that an operation has been launched to disrupt organised crime groups in Sharrow, Broomhall and City, following “several incidents of violence in the central and south-west areas of the city involving the discharge of firearms and use of bladed weapons.”

Dr Billings told a public accountability meeting on May 12: “A firearms discharge is a matter that disturbs communities hugely, and I think the time of day of which some of this has happened has been particularly worrying for some.”

Chief Superintendent Shelley Hemsley, Sheffield’s district commander told the meeting that specific operations and increased patrols to target the use of firearms have taken place around Broomhall, Sharrow and Abbeydale, and added that the force is “starting to see reductions again in firearms enabled crime.”

“What do do know about those sorts of offences is that they tend to be targeted, but clearly that does still give some concerns for public safety.”

Chief Superintendent Sarah Poolman added: “What we have seen in the last couple of months is a greater degree of recklessness around endangering the lives of not only the person intended, but also the recklessness towards members of the public in the vicinity.

“We’re seeing some significant recoveries, which means taking guns off the street, and what we do know from the ballistic service is that here are pool weapons, so actually if we do take a number of weapons out of the system, we are reducing the harm that those weapons can do.”