700 knives handed in to Staffordshire Police in seven days
More than 700 knives were handed in to Staffordshire Police in a single week as part of the force's campaign to blunt a 50 per cent rise in related crime in the last two years.
Bins were set up at police stations between July 10 and 16 with officers promising to ask no further questions of anyone dropping off weapons.
Around 80 knives were relinquished in Cannock, 70 at South Staffordshire's Watling Street station in Gailey, 50 in Stafford and around another 50 in Lichfield.
The campaign was arguably significantly more successful than last year's plea for blades to be surrendered which although yielded more weapons - 1,100 - took place over an entire month.
Chief Superintendent Wayne Jones, Head of Local Policing and Operations, said: “Thanks to the support we have had from local partners, we have been able to educate more people about the harm knives can cause and discourage them from making the poor choice to carry one.
"This kind of activity is critical in preventing the horrendous consequences of knife crime and we hope that this message has landed across the County.
“I am really encouraged by the willingness of people to give up their knives and I am sure that this is a campaign that we will repeat in the future in our efforts to continue to reduce harm.
“Whilst we will push the prevention message in every way we can to change behaviour and keep people safe, I will be making sure our officers continue to identify and arrest those found carrying and using knives.”
Upon the launch of the amnesty police chiefs blamed the substantial increase in knife crime on the prevalence of gang culture, a lack of vigilance in shops, a misconception it makes people safer to carry a blade as well as the external influences in computer games, television and music with the Grime genre singled out in particular.
The campaign also included officer visits to schools, a social media drive which reached 120,000 people, warnings issued to secondary school pupil parents, and a business awareness scheme around the pitfalls of selling knives to people under the age of 18.
