Hertfordshire Completes Week of Action on Knife Crime

A week of action was carried out as part of the national Sceptre knife crime campaign between 19-25 May.

During the week activities focused on raising awareness of knife crime and the risks associated with carrying a weapon. Enhanced enforcement activity also took place with weapons detection operations, stop searches and visits to known knife carriers and offenders on probation, to ensure they were not in possession of weapons.

The week mainly focused on education and more than 15 schools and colleges received visits and presentations. The constabulary’s Child Criminal Exploitation Prevention and Diversion team also ran sessions with interactive games using VR headsets to simulate situations involving knife and gang crime. A survey was also sent to schools to gather students’ thoughts and feelings about knife crime, which will be used to help shape future plans and operations.

Visits were made to more than ten retailers around the county, to ensure knives are not being sold to those under 18 and to give advice on safely displaying bladed items. All retailers tested carried out the required age checks. A knife amnesty also ran during the week, where 76 items were surrendered.

Inspector Ben Harper, who led the campaign, said: ‘Fighting knife crime is part of our regular business, but the weeks of action are a great opportunity to focus our attention on this issue and raise awareness of the harm that can and often does occur if you chose to carry a knife.

‘The majority of young people who think about carrying a knife believe that it will make them safer, in fact the opposite is true. In most cases the person with the knife is the one who gets injured.

‘Even if you do not get injured, you are likely to injure someone else or end up with a lengthy prison sentence. We arrange many awareness raising events in schools, colleges and online, throughout the year, to educate young people about these dangers.’

If you would like further information on support services relating to knife crime contact: Fearless.org.

You can report information about knife crime online or speak to an operator in the Force Communications Room via online web chat.

Alternatively, you can stay 100% anonymous by contacting the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via their untraceable online form.