Nearly 100 knives recovered from Kent streets in just one week

Officers have seized nearly 100 knives and arrested 13 people in Kent within just a week during their latest enforcement to tackle knife crime in the county. This was part of the national campaign Operation Sceptre which led to 83 stop searches and 44 weapon sweeps across the county to find knives that offenders have hidden in and around communities.

Of the 96 knives recovered, 11 were confiscated during weapon sweeps, nine of which were found in Medway. A further 65 were placed into ‘surrender bins’, 12 were retrieved during stops and searches and two found following arrests.

Another three were recovered during search warrants and the remainder were seized in searches following arrests. Superintendent Peter Steenhuis of Kent Police’s Partnerships Command, told KentLive he was not surprised by the number of knives seized.

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He said: “These operations are regular operations throughout the year. We do focus on this throughout the year in our violent crime hotspots.

“When we do a national week of intensification, this is every area in Kent Police doing it all at the same time, so you do see large volumes of knives seized. But we’re not surprised by that activity.

“People carry knives unfortunately for various reasons. Some will carry it because they think they need to protect themselves from knife crime, so they carry them obviously with criminal intention in mind.”

Constables also carried out work with local retailers to ensure that knives were not being sold to under-18s and that knives were stored securely to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, as a result of shoplifting, for example.

Plain-clothed patrols arrested a man on Friday 19 May after they stopped and searched him in Chatham High Street and seized a knife and drugs. Denzel Edwards, of Dock Road, Chatham, was later charged with possession of a bladed article in a public place, possession of cocaine, and possession of cannabis. He is due to appear before Medway Magistrates’ Court on Friday 30 June.

25 hotspots across Kent

He added: “We have identified 25 hotspots across Kent for violent crime that we tackle, and have been tackling over the last year and into this year to provide additional focus and additional high visibility policing, additional problem solving, working with communities and schools to lower the violent crime and knife related crime in those areas.

“So this is a national issue. But obviously, what we’re very focused on to prevent happening in Kent and Kent is a very safe place fortunately to live, work and visit but it’s the activity that we do that keeps you safe with the regular activity that we do.”

When asked about the most challenging when it comes to tackling knife crimes, especially during the week of aciton, Supt Steenhuis said :”The most challenging issues would be around community confidence because when you’re talking about knives, and you’re talking about knife crimes it raises the fear of knife crime.

“We don’t like to use knife imagery. If we seize a whole load of knives, the last thing that we want to do is put a photograph of all of those knives to say ‘look all these knives we seized’ because that increases the fear of knives and what that leads to is more young people thinking they need to carry a knife to protect themselves, and what that leads to is more people being injured. So we want to avoid that.”

Throughout the week, officers in north Kent spoke with nearly 500 children and young adults via school assemblies, presentations to cadets, walk and talk events, and pop-up stands.The events were aimed at increasing awareness of the dangers of knives, and dispelling myths that carrying a knife increases safety, supported by statistics demonstrating that those who habitually carry weapons were at greater risk of sustaining knife-related injuries.

He said: “We do a lot of work within schools across Kent. I would say young people are more impressionable. If you have lots of images of knives, saying that, there are lots of knives out there, young people are more likely to respond in a negative way.

“They think they need to carry knives to protect themselves. They don’t, you’re more likely to be injured.”

Nearly 22 per cent of knife-related incidents in the financial year 2022/23 ended in injuries, which included six fatalities. He added: “We’ll continue tackling it, especially in hotspots, the areas that we believe are going to need some additional funding and additional police officer activity to keep people safe. So that work will continue.

“We’ve seen it get better when you look at the figures, there were 4529 knife-related crimes in the last financial year compared with 4724 in the previous financial year so there’s a drop of around 4%. It’s moving in the right direction.”

In east Kent, officers worked alongside the British Transport Police to deter people from carrying knives in public, by using police dogs and a knife pole, a mobile body scanner that can help officers detect hidden knives.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for knife-crime across Kent and tackling it always remains a force priority,” Supt Steenhuis said. “Beyond Operation Sceptre, we are routinely out in force to challenge those who choose to carry weapons in public and place the safety of others at risk, with our dedicated County Lines and Gangs Teams proactively targeting and disrupting criminals.”

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