South Yorkshire Police: 'Officers doing everything in their power to tackle violent crime in Sheffield'

A senior Sheffield police officer made the appeal as she said the force is doing everything within its power to tackle such issues.

Concerns have been raised about the amount of violent crime taking place across Sheffield, following a number of incidents including the murders of Richard Dentith and Lamar Leroy Griffiths, both of whom were murdered in Burngreave with eight days of each other in March and April this year.

The city has also seen a number of shootings and stabbings in recent months, including an incident on Tinsley Green earlier this month in which three boys aged between 13 and 15-years-old were arrested in connection with a knife attack on a boy aged 16.

The Star has spoken to Sheffield’s District Commander, Chief Superintendent Shelley Hemsley, about South Yorkshire Police’s response to violent crime in Sheffield, and its potential causes.

“We’re doing everything we can within our power to tackle violent crime, using a wealth of tactics that are available to us,” she said, adding: “There’s a lot of activity that’s ongoing and I’m as concerned as anyone when we see violent crime across the city because I know that affects people’s perception of feeling safe. What we do tend to see is that a lot of these instances do not tend to be random, where serious violence is used.

Chf Supt Hemsley continued by saying that ‘some of the violent crime that occurs within the city is fuelled by drug supply’.

“We, as a city, and a district, work hard to get the intelligence that we need to understand what drug supply is taking place within the city. You’ll see overt action in relation to that,” she added.

“You’ll have seen officers executing warrants at addresses to try and recover drugs and arrest people suspected of drug dealing…maybe those ones that are involved knife and firearm-enabled violence. We’ve got our Operation Fortify that are working hard around drug supply and organised crime groups to disrupt, deter and prosecute.”

Chf Supt Hemsley said the force relies on people providing information about drug supply and violent crimes, and urged members of the public to come forward and play a part in the fight against criminality.

“Because we want to help communities to feel safer, and for that, we have to rely on people telling us what’s happening there so we can deal with it,” the chief superintendent said.

“People may not feel safe to do that necessarily by speaking to the police but there are other methods, and Crimestoppers is a really good way of anonymously reporting information in your community that we will be able to act on.”

A major factor in the force's response to gun violence is its armed crime team, which was set up in 2020, said Chf Supt Hemsley.

She added: “Their focus is to reduce firearms discharges and firearm-enabled crime within the city. There’s absolutely no doubt they’ve had some successes in terms of people they’ve brought to justice, the sentences that they’ve had as a result of their investigations and no doubt, as a result of that, the number of people who have been affected by those offenders still being at large in the community.”

Information can be passed to South Yorkshire Police by calling 101, or by contacting Crimestoppers anonymously by phone on 0800 555 111 or via crimestoppers-uk.org.