Supporting safer streets across North Yorkshire

Supporting safer streets across North Yorkshire 

This week we will be intensifying our efforts to keep our communities safe as part of Sceptre, a national operation to reduce knife crime across the country.

North Yorkshire has significantly lower levels of knife crime compared to the national average and we want that to continue. Throughout the years, we have made dozens of arrests under this operation in a bid to make our county a safe place to live and work.

This operation runs concurrently with the Ben Kinsella Trust's Knife Crime Awareness Week, which this year aims to challenge the idea that knife crime is inevitable.

In order to make as much of an impact as possible, we will be doing the following throughout the week:

• Our Neighbourhood Policing Teams will be out and about within our communities and schools to reassure and educate people of all ages of the consequences of carrying knives.

• There will be more deployments and additional patrols within our communities.

• Policing activity to target people suspected of carrying weapons.

• Promoting the secure, easy-to-access knife bins that are located across our county. To find your nearest knife bin, check out our website.

Some knives are legal to possess but illegal to carry in public without a lawful purpose. Others are classed as offensive weapons which are illegal to possess, even at home. But both can be surrendered at our dedicated knife bins or your local police station.

We know it can be worrying to hear about incidents involving knives but carrying a knife yourself doesn’t make you any safer and can put you and your loved ones at risk.

If there are areas where you live or frequently spend time in that don’t feel safe, then you can report this on a website called StreetSafe.

If someone you know is carrying a knife, you can contact us directly via 101 or you can report it anonymously to Crimestoppers.