Second knife amnesty gets underway

The PSNI has today welcomed the government's announcement to run a second knife amnesty across Northern Ireland and the change in legislation to raise the age for purchasing a knife from 16 to 18-years-old.

The three-week amnesty will start today and will run until Monday December 11, with knife disposal bins being located at civic amenity sites throughout the province.

Commenting as the second knife amnesty gets underway, Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said: "Following Northern Ireland's first amnesty in June of this year 886 knives were taken off our streets. I hope that with this second amnesty we can build on that success and take even more dangerous and offensive weapons out of circulation.

"Every weapon handed in will be a weapon that cannot be used in crime. People depositing knives at the civic amenity sites will not be investigated by police for taking such action. However, police will still investigate, arrest and charge those in possession of knives as an offensive weapon in all other circumstances."

He continued: "When the first amnesty ended I promised that police would begin the enforcement process. This has been conducted through a robust 'stop and search policy' if a person is suspected of carrying an offensive weapon.”

Since the beginning of June this year, 7540 searches have been carried out across the 29 District Command Units in Northern Ireland, resulting in 694 offensive weapons being recovered.

130 metal detectors were recently purchased and have been distributed to every DCU, and have been used as a pro-active measure by officers to detect knives and other dangerous weapons in an effort to reduce knife related crime.

Since the knife awareness campaign was launched in May 2006, knife related incidents have decreased.

Police figures available for April to October 2006 show that 598 crimes were recorded where a knife was involved, of these 124 were for possession of an offensive weapon.

For the same period in 2005, 607 crimes were recorded where a knife was involved - of these 86 were for possession of an offensive weapon.

ACC McCausland continued: "Our year long advertising strategy will continue to run until the end of April. Our education programme, supported by the Department of Education and delivered by designated community safety involvement officers has already targeted almost 7000 post primary school pupils across Northern Ireland.

"The issue of knives is not just a policing one it is a matter for everyone. It is police, however, who are left to deal with the victims and the immediate consequences. My officers are the ones who attend scenes of incidents where a knife has been used, they inform families and loved ones and pursue those responsible.”

He concluded that the community must work together in an effort to deal with this issue and urged the community to support and contribute to this second knife amnesty and play their part in reducing knife related crime and working towards making Northern Ireland a safer place to live.

(EF/KMcA)