KNIVES can be handed in anonymously at police stations across Warwickshire during a week-long campaign to make the county’s streets safer.
The Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife week will run as part of the national Operation Sceptre knife awareness campaign, starting on Tuesday (September 18).
The campaign comes in the wake of spiralling knife-related deaths across the country, including Fidel Glasgow – the grandson of The Specials singer Neville Staple – outside a Coventry nightclub earlier this month.
During the campaign, blades can be left in knife surrender bins at police stations in Leamington, Rugby, Stratford and Nuneaton.
Those surrendering knives will not have to give any details and will not face prosecution for carrying them – but officers will investigate and seek to prosecute if they believe a knife has been used in a crime.
Ch Supt David Gardner said: “Although knife crime is rare in Warwickshire, when it happens it can have a devastating effect on people’s lives and one incident of knife crime is one too many.
“Knife crime not only impacts upon victims but also their family, friends, and the wider community.
“People have a week in which they can anonymously deposit their knives or blades into a surrender bin at a local police station. I would urge people to take this opportunity and help prevent further tragedies.
“Many knives are held in innocence or ignorance of their illegality. The surrender gives these people the chance to dispose of the knife anonymously with no questions asked, by simply dropping it into a knife bin at their local station.”
The campaign runs from Tuesday (September 18) to Monday September 24.
