Hundreds of weapons have been taken off the streets of Nottinghamshire in a crackdown on knife crime. In the week-long Operation Sceptre, more than 200 knives were seized.
Officers visited more than 70 schools across the county throughout the week - November 14 to November 20 - to deliver education sessions, which were attended by more than 5,000 school pupils. There was also an event at Park Vale Academy, in Top Valley, funded by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire, Caroline Henry.
Around 250 people attended and there were speeches from people who had lost loved ones, as well as music and dance performances from local artists and a range of other activities. Superintendent Kathryn Craner, the Nottinghamshire Police knife crime lead, said: “Tackling knife crime is very much an ongoing challenge for us and is something we work on all year-round to try and improve for our communities.
Read more: Nottinghamshire mums who lost sons to knife crime issue powerful message
“Operation Sceptre offers just a small sample of some of the work we do each day, alongside our partners, to protect people from the devastation we know knife crime can cause to families. It is so important that we run visible operations like this, so that the people of Nottinghamshire can see us leaving no stone unturned in our attempts to stop people coming to harm in this way."
Three metal detecting knife arches were used at different locations. A total of 196 weapons were dropped off anonymously by members of the public throughout the week in the 14 knife amnesty bins set up inside police stations across Nottinghamshire. Officers carried out 46 weapons sweeps around parks and other areas during the week of action, which led to eight knives being found that would’ve otherwise remained undetected.
More than 100 stop-and-searches were carried out by officers as patrols were upped. And knife test purchase operations took place at 21 stores across the force area, which saw police cadets visit different shops and attempt to buy knives. None of the underage cadets were sold knives as part of the operation.
And young people were taken by officers to the Ben Kinsella Trust’s Choices and Consequences anti-knife crime workshop at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham city centre.
Office for National Statistics figures show knife crime fell by seven percent in Nottinghamshire between April 2021 and March 2022, compared to the same 12-month period before the pandemic.
These statistics show 852 knife crime offences were reported between July 2021 to June 2022. By way of comparison, 759 knife crime offences took place between July 2020 to June 2021, taking into account the pandemic, marking a 12 percent increase. Over the same period, there was a nine percent increase in knife crime nationally.
Supt Craner added: “Taking knives off the streets and educating young people about the consequences of carrying a blade so they make the right choices is crucial to reducing offending and preventing these crimes from happening in the first place.
“Engaging with people at a young age about knife crime so they fully understand the impact their decisions can have is a key part of this, which is why we run these early intervention sessions, not just during Op Sceptre but all year-round. Lots of people still don’t understand that carrying a knife actually puts them at greater risk of coming to harm, so this is a key message we always look to get across during our school visits."
Nottinghamshire’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) uses early intervention methods to engage with young people and educate them about the dangers associated with knife crime before they ever pick up a knife.
Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry, who attended the force’s knife crime community event at Park Vale Academy on November 19, said: “I was listening to the mums talking about their horrific experiences and as a mum it really got to me.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to have that phone call to say your child had been stabbed and the devastation that would bring to your family. It’s just wrong. It’s not just the impact on the child but their brothers and sisters and the whole community.
“If any parent thinks about having that phone call it should really make them realise that we all need to have these conversations with our young people to make sure they don’t ever think of picking up a knife – and explaining to them that taking a knife out with them means there are more likely to be injured themselves.”
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