Police use VR to help combat youth knife crime

15 December 2025

Ethan Saundersin Northwood

The children at Grove academy were given the opportunity to use VR Headsets as part of the Ditch the Blade campaign

BBC A few children with grey VR headsets on. They have a pair of black headphones on as well a dark navy blue school uniform. — The children at Grove academy were given the opportunity to use VR Headsets as part of the Ditch the Blade campaign

Police officers are using Virtual Reality (VR) headsets to help combat youth knife crime.

Staffordshire Police have been going into schools as part of their Ditch the Blade campaign.

The sessions see children be put in a scenario that ultimately leaves them with two outcomes where they either get given a knife or they do not.

PSCO Michelle Chadwick said: "It's making children think about their choices and choices they can make in the future".

Isabelle (left) and Max (right) took part in the sessions.

Two school children in a navy blue blazer, white shirt with a purple and grey striped tie on. — Isabelle (left) and Max (right) took part in the sessions.

Max, one of the students at Grove Academy in Northwood, who took part in the session said the simulation felt real.

"The people kept coming up to me and there was going to be a fight, and I didn't carry the knife," he said.

This meant that at the end he was let go by the police.

Isabelle, another student at the same school, ended up being arrested at the end of her simulation.

She said she followed the group because she felt nervous not to and ultimately faced peer pressure.

When asked if either of them would carry a knife after the simulation both answered no.

PCSO Michelle Chadwick has been travelling around schools across Staffordshire to deliver the sessions

A women with blonde hair in a blue police top with a high vis vest that is adorned with a radio and camera. — PCSO Michelle Chadwick has been travelling around schools across Staffordshire to deliver the sessions

Michelle Chadwick is one of the officers that goes into the schools to conduct the sessions and helps to create a safe space for the children to explore the decisions and talk about them afterwards.

"It's not always an easy conversation to have but its important to bring it up" she said.

She feels that the sessions are key to raising awareness about the topic so they can reduce knife crime, she said: "It's about making them understand there are consequences and bigger impacts than they perhaps realise".

Julie Highfield is a teaching assistant at the school and has been taken aback at the types of children that have ended the simulations by being arrested.

A women with black hair and hoodie on. She is looking at the camera smiling — Julie Highfield is a teaching assistant at the school and has been taken aback at the types of children that have ended the simulations by being arrested.

Ultimately the team want to make sure children are educated before they go into the world and have an understanding that the decisions they make along the way could end up to an undesirable outcome if they are not careful.

PCSO Chadwick was keen to point out that youth knife crime is still quite low, she said: "In actual reality its only 1% [of young people] that are carrying knives and that's the message that we want to put across".

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