West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson has joined forces with police bosses across the country to call for 10,000 new police officers and investment in youth services, to combat knife crime and youth violence.
Also backing the demand are London Mayor Sadiq Kahn and elected politicians responsible for policing in Greater Manchester, Humberside, West Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Cleveland, South Wales and Lancashire.
In a joint letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, also signed by Labour Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh, they said: "This is a national crisis, and it requires leadership from the top of government."
They urged the Government to:
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Convene the COBRA committee, a Government committee that meets in times of national emergency
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Put 10,000 police officers back on the streets, after years of cuts
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Rebuild Sure Start, the service for parents and children, and provide funding for youth services
It comes after three teenagers died in knife attacks in two weeks in Birmingham.
Hazrat Umar, 17, was killed in Bordesley Green on Monday; Abdullah Muhammad, 16, died in Small Heath last week; and seven days earlier Sidali Mohamed, 16, was stabbed outside a college in Highgate.
The attacks were among 269 knife crimes recorded so far this year in the West Midlands.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn highlighted concern about knife crime in the House of Commons, as he claimed Theresa May was trying to keep communities "safe on the cheap".
He asked Theresa May to explain if she had any regrets over cutting police officer numbers and criticised the impact of "systematically" stripping away public services to support young people.
He added that austerity has driven the rise in violent crime.
And he urged the Prime Minister to listen to Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor for Greater Manchester whose sister-in-law's 18 year-old nephew was stabbed to death in Birmingham.
In an interview with BBC2's Newsnight, Mr Afzal said there was a link between police cuts and rising violent crime. He said: "When you reduce police numbers by 21,000 - hundreds in pretty much every city - there isn't the intelligence any more, there isn't the neighbourhood policing any more, people don't know where to go."
Mrs May said any deaths through violence are an "appalling tragedy" and a "growing number" of young people are dying in a "growing cycle of violence that has shocked us all".
She said she would hold a summit in Number 10 in coming days and meet victims of the "appalling crimes" to explore what can be done.
And she insisted: "We are putting more resources into the police this year - it's no good members on the Opposition benches standing up and saying 'no you're not', it's a fact more money is being put into the police this year, that more money is being put into the police next year.
"The real question is not are we putting more money into the police, because we are - the real question is why did the Labour Party oppose that money going into the police?"
It's true that Government funding for police has risen this year. However, this is the first increase since 2010 and there have been years of cuts.
The mother of a young rapper who was stabbed to death in 2013 has branded the lack of progress on knife crime a national "disgrace".
Joshua Ribera, 18, was knifed in the heart in the car park of a Birmingham nightclub by a teenager after a confrontation over a woman.
Alison Cope , Mr Ribera's mother, said: "Nobody is making this a priority, and it's very, very, very sad... the only reason, sadly, they're talking about it so much now is because all of a sudden we've broken the mould of 'inner city black youths' because white people are being stabbed, and that's really, really sad, that this is where it starts to suddenly become more important."
West Midlands Police have revealed Police have carried out over 1,000 stop and searches in the city over four days.
And during those searches, 14 knives were seized - including three as a suspect was probed at New Street Station.
