Essex police force first in the country to use new portable knife arch
Police hope it'll keep knives off the street
A new mobile weapons detector is being used to keep knives off the streets of Southend.
Officers from the Southend Community Policing Team are the first in the country to use the OpenGate system, which is specifically designed to detect dense metal objects.
The OpenGate, which was funded through the city’s Community Safety Partnership, consists of two freestanding poles that are five feet high, making the technology more mobile and less conspicuous than a conventional knife arch.
Since the gate was first used last month, police say thousands of people have passed through it, with a number of weapons being recovered.
Inspector Paul Hogben of the Southend Community Policing Team said the system has been successful so far: “The OpenGate is so much better for street tactics than what we’ve had previously. We can deploy it far more often than we could a knife arch and the feedback from members of the public has been fantastic.
“We’re able to demonstrate that it’s not just a metal detector, we’re looking for weapons and people are reassured by that...
“We’ve detected knives and picked up weapons where people have seen the deployment and discarded them before they’ve got to it. We’ve also seized a lot of nitrous oxide canisters.”
So far, police have deployed the gate at locations across Southend including Marine Parade, the High Street, outside Southend Victoria and Southend Central train stations and by Adventure Island.
Inspector Hogben said that he didn't want to public to worry about their safety in the city: “Knife carrying in Southend is related to certain gangs and they are the people we are targeting.
"The OpenGate makes the city a more hostile place for these people to operate. They can’t predict when and where they might turn a corner and walk straight into a deployment.
“When we have had incidents involving knives, these have tended to be targeted, involving individuals known to each other.
“Southend is a safe place to live and to visit and we won’t let a tiny minority spoil things for residents and the thousands of visitors who come to city every year.”