Herts police says its recent amnesty to help get knives off the streets with no questions asked was a success with 22 knives or bladed articles being handed in at Stevenage police station alone.
The amnesty which was part of a national initiative from October 17 to 23, ran just weeks after the stabbing of police dog Finn and PC Dave Wardell in Stevenage.
In total, 155 knives were handed in across the county.
Officers also ran a series of test purchase operations, using police cadets who tried to buy knives from 30 retailers in Stevenage, Watford and Hemel Hempstead. The underage cadets managed to buy knives at eight of these premises.
Inspector Ian Grout, who led the Hertfordshire amnesty, said: “The amnesty has been very successful and helped to spread the message that carrying knives in public could lead to being arrested or be dangerous for those who carry them.
“There is very little knife crime in Hertfordshire, but it is important to continue to ensure that knives are not being carried around on the streets and that they are not getting into the hands of minors. We will be speaking with the businesses that sold knives to our cadets and will be regularly checking up on all knife outlets to make sure they are observing the law.”
The Comet has featured the amnesty as part of its anti-knife crime campaign ‘cowards carry knives’.
Send your views, opinions and stories of how knife crime has affected you, to news@thecomet.net or tweet using the hashtag #cowardscarryknives.
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