Over 50 knives taken off the streets - and 36 people arrested - after a week-long anti-knife operation was carried out by Leicestershire Police

Some 36 people have been arrested and over 50 knives taken off the streets after a week-long anti-knife operation was carried out by Leicestershire Police.

The force conducted Operation Sceptre across Harborough and the rest of the county as part of a national campaign staged in a bid to beat knife crime.

Officers targeted people carrying weapons and disrupted the supply of knives available to use.

“It led to 36 arrests, 12 of which were directly related to knife crime offences and a quantity of weapons being taken off the streets,” said police.

In all, nine knives were seized by officers and three knives were recovered during 15 knife sweeps across the county.

A total of 48 knives were recovered from knife surrender bins around Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Police carried out knife sweeps, deployed portable knife arches, conducted pro-active patrols and performed stop and search activities.

Working with local partners, community colleges and schools, officers supported over 30 anti-knife and drug events.

They also engaged with 8,000 people across Leicestershire and Rutland.

Online, officers conducted digital knife crime awareness sessions.

They were hosted virtually and attended by over 4,000 students and teachers.

Officers also attended community meetings and co-ordinated 18 test purchase operations in shops to ensure businesses were selling knives legally.

The We Don’t Carry #LivesNotKnives online campaign reached over 350,000 people across digital and social media channels.

Det Ch Insp Gavin Drummond, of Leicestershire Police’s Violent and Complex Crime Unit, led the operation.

“Working closely as a force and with our partners across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland we have recorded some great pro-active results.

“The operation reflects our commitment to working alongside local agencies and the community to prevent knife crime. “Whilst policing plays an essential role in enforcement activity we want to continue to work together alongside our Violence Reduction Network to embed a community-led approach to prevention and enforcement, by working together and taking a unified approach we will ultimately be more effective in reducing knife crime,” said Det Ch Insp Drummond.

“It is important that we all take a role in supporting our young people to make positive choices and facilitate conversations that bring about change, help and support is available and resources can be found on our website.

“Ultimately, knife crime will not be tolerated.

“We will continue to tackle knife crime as a force priority and we will continue to work collaboratively to do everything we can to catch offenders and deal with them correctly.”

You can watch police carrying out the anti-knife operation in Leicestershire here: https://www.leics.police.uk/news/leicestershire/news/2021/may/operation-sceptre-leads-to-arrests-and-seizures/