Nottinghamshire Police's Operation Sceptre aims to boost knife amnesty
A knife amnesty is to be held by Nottinghamshire Police next week.
Operation Sceptre will feature increased support from community partners to host amnesty bins across Nottinghamshire.
It comes after the last amnesty in March pulled in 635 bladed weapons. It will run from September 16 to 22.
The operation means there will be 25 places across the county to deposit unwanted knives, up from 15 at the previous amnesty.
Assistant chief constable Kate Meynell of Nottinghamshire Police said she hoped the growing support from the community would lead to more weapons being taken out of circulation.
"Knife amnesties are a chance for people across Nottinghamshire to play their own individual part in making their communities a safer place to live, work and visit by removing potentially dangerous weapons from the grasp of those who might use them to cause fear and harm," she said.
"This will be the third amnesty we have held in 18 months and each time we have seen more weapons handed in and more support from external partners wanting to help us to make a difference.
"That is really encouraging because it shows more and more people are recognising that they can have an impact and that every weapon recovered has the potential to save lives."
Amnesty stations in our area:
- Newark & Sherwood District Council’s Castle House
- Newark police station
- Ollerton police station
"I am a Nottingham lad and I have seen it change," said pastor Trevor Anderson, of Mount Zion Apostolic Church.
"We all need to do something about knife crime – we can’t just leave it up to the law enforcement. The community itself needs to get it over that it is not acceptable in the community and we need to do as much as we can to make our voices heard.
"If even one person hears the message it could keep them out of jail or keep them out of a 6ft hole in a box."
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