County-wide knife crime prevention scheme runs in Mansfield town centre

Knife crime prevention through education and awareness was the main focus of Operation Sceptre as rolled out by Nottinghamshire Police.

Nottinghamshire's joint approach to tackling the issues of knife crime involves police, partners and local communities all working closely together to tackle the issue and venues in Mansfield town centre allowed policing teams to put the arch outside their premises in order to raise awareness and keep the public safe.

During Op Sceptre week in Mansfield and across the county, positive action to raise awareness of the devastating consequences of knife crime, to help prevent incidents from happening in the first place, included knife sweeps, educational events at schools, warrants and proactive public engagement including the use of metal-detecting walk-through knife arches.

Speaking on the operation, Nottinghamshire police and crime commissioner – Caroline Henry said: “We need people to understand that carrying a knife does not protect you.

“It actually puts you and others at risk and the consequences can be devastating.

“Nottinghamshire Police and partner agencies work incredibly hard every day to prevent knife crime, with educating and engaging the public a vital way of doing that.”

Superintendent Kathryn Craner, Nottinghamshire Police’s knife crime lead, added: “Operation Sceptre gives us a great opportunity to make people aware of the support that is out there and encourage people to reach out.

“Operation Sceptre allows us to shine a light on a small sample of some of this preventative work, along with what our officers do each day to tackle weapon-enabled crime by identifying offenders and taking knives off the streets.”

Officers carried out visible patrols of hotspot during the action week in Mansfield and Nottinghamshire as a whole.

Nottinghamshire Police is one of only a handful of forces that has two dedicated knife crime teams, who specifically target this type of offending all year-round, with their regular patrols alone leading to around 140 blades and offensive weapons being taken off the streets in the last year.