Shropshire police launch knife surrender campaign

The surrender is a chance to dispose of any blades anonymously with no questions asked by dropping it into a knife bin at county police stations.

Between September 18 and 24, there will be bins at Monkmoor Police Station, Shrewsbury, and Malinsgate station in Telford.

Chief Superintendent Kevin Purcell said the Save A Life, Surrender Your Knife campaign had been launched in response to a number of high profile incidents in recent months.

He said: "We are fortunate we do not experience the same level of knife crime across the county when compared to other parts of the country, but we know there have been a small number of relatively high profile incidents locally that have quite rightly caused concern to our communities.

"Knife crime can have a devastating effect on people’s lives and one incident of knife crime is one too many. It not only impacts upon victims but also their family, friends and the wider community. I would urge people to take this opportunity to anonymously deposit their knives or blades into a surrender bin and help prevent further tragedies."

During the campaign, anyone surrendering a knife will not have to give any personal details and will not face prosecution for carrying it.

However, police will carry out an investigation and seek to prosecute if they believe it has been used to commit a crime.

Arrests

It is part of a wider national scheme called Operation Sceptre which came into force on September 3.

In the first week, police in Shropshire made four arrests, carried out 13 stop and searches and seized stolen property, two cars and a quantity of illegal drugs.

Superintendent Jason Wells added: "There is often a perception that serious and organised crime only happens in large urban areas but the reality is it is happening everywhere, whether it is drug supply or organised thefts and burglaries.

"If it involves a network of criminals working together we will do all we can to disrupt that network and want to send a clear message that we will not tolerate this happening in our county.

"We know that some of these crimes are being carried out by a small number of local criminals and are working to target these people but what we are also seeing is an increase in travelling criminals – people coming in from outside the area to commit serious and organised crime.

"Together with our partner agencies we are doing all we can to prevent serious and organised crime in our county."

Throughout the week, local policing teams will be running events raising awareness of the dangers of knife crime.