Gloucestershire Police take part in knife amnesty campaign
The week long campaign aims to tackle knife and violent crime
Gloucestershire Police are taking part in a national knife amnesty campaign this week. Operation Sceptre is a national campaign which aims to take bladed and dangerous weapons off the streets.
Gloucestershire Constabulary have set up amnesty bins at different police stations across the county, and anyone in possession of one of these weapons is being encouraged to come forward and dispose of them safely.
Superintendent Jane Probert explained what the campaign was about: “Operation Sceptre is running from Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd May, and its a national awareness campaign and a knife amnesty.
“So all forces in England and Wales are signed up to this to encourage people to hand in weapons which they may be in possession of lawfully or unlawfully.”
Superintendent Probert also explained that the amnesty campaign was an important preventative measure. “I think we all know that knife crime exists and the outcome of knife crime can be really tragic,” she said.
“So any way in which we can encourage people to remove those weapons from the streets is naturally going to be a bonus and a win for the communities to keep where we live safer.”
Superintendent Probert also reassured locals that Gloucestershire’s rates of knife and violent crime remain relatively low.
“Gloucestershire remains a really safe place to live, I think still way within the top 10 safest places to live in the United Kingdom. But like everywhere else we do have knife crime and we do have violent crime, so the whole purpose of this is about reducing both of those.”
Members of the public are being encouraged to wrap any bladed weapons they want to drop off are wrapped in newspaper or cardboard, and sealed with tape, to prevent it piercing through.