Bristol’s Operation Remedy: Hunting zombie knives in a city plagued by violence

And that’s the other fine balance here – engagement or enforcement, intervention or incarceration? The intent is to avoid criminalising under-18s whenever possible.

“Putting a child in prison is not the answer,” says Detective Chief Inspector Larisa Hunt, who heads up Avon and Somerset Police’s early intervention team. “It’s not the solution because they’ll come out of prison, so what then?”

BBC News was given access to a weekly meeting monitoring young people at greatest risk of violence, either as perpetrator or victim – and often the same person risks both.

Updates are shared, incidents raised, movements tracked, and action plans agreed. They discuss a pair of teenagers who stole a car last night after threatening the occupants with a machete and a gun.

There’s urgency to understand how they’re linked – to the victims, to each other and to the rest of the faces on their wall of young people to worry about. One of the names is familiar and will be shared with the council youth team.

Another young man has been threatened and stamped on over a perceived debt. He won’t say by who, but the team must still consider how to stop retaliatory attacks that could quickly escalate.

These are officers who really know the lives of these young people and their families – it’s a task somewhere between surveillance and social work, but trust is fragile.

One lad has stopped replying to messages. He’s known to be staying with relatives out of the area, but there’s a fear he’ll return and fall back into criminal associations and violent confrontation. An officer is assigned to talk to his mum and agree a plan with his social worker.

Every case is discussed in detail with care, understanding and concern. The juveniles on their watchlist are treated as vulnerable children, likely facing exploitation by older criminals and forced to run drugs or hold weapons.