Nottinghamshire Police is urging people to bin unwanted knives before they fall into the wrong hands.
The force has set up amnesty bins at stations across the county in a bid to take more blades out of harm’s way.
As many as 14 bins have been rolled out in Nottinghamshire as part of a national week of action, known as ‘Operation Sceptre’, to root out knife crime.
Anyone wanting to throw a knife away can do so without fear of being prosecuted by safely dropping it in one of the bins over the next few days.
The amnesty bins have been set up at the front counters inside chosen police stations, where they can be accessed by all throughout Operation Sceptre, which runs from 14-20 November.
Nearly 200 knives were seized and destroyed after the bins were deployed during the two previous weeks of action in November 2021 and May of this year.
Following this success, permanent amnesty bins were also recently set up inside each of Radford Road, Mansfield and Newark stations, to help take even more knives off the streets.
Having these drop-off points as permanent fixtures in stations will allow people to discard knives all year-round, beyond Operation Sceptre, which only offers a snapshot of the proactive work already being done by police.
Superintendent Kathryn Craner, Nottinghamshire Police’s knife crime lead, said: “It’s important people realise that this initiative isn’t a trick and that they can drop off unwanted knives without getting into trouble.
“These bins are available for everyone to use, whether it’s to get rid of a blade that belongs to them, or they’ve found one and are worried about it falling into the hands of someone else.
“People may also be looking for ways to hand in certain weapons, like knuckledusters and zombie knives, which are now also illegal to have in their homes, so this offers a good opportunity to do that.
“We’ve seen lots of people come forward when we’ve rolled this service out in the past, so we’re hoping to see similar results throughout this latest week of action.
“While we’ll again be providing knife drop off points within the community throughout Operation Sceptre though, we want to stress that taking knives off our streets is very much a year-round aim for us.
“As an example of this, we have recently expanded our knife amnesty offering further by setting up permanent bins inside a number of stations, where people can drop off unwanted blades without fear of reprisal.
“Taking dangerous weapons off the streets and out of harm’s way is key to helping us reduce knife crime, so we’re pleased to provide this important initiative.”
Members of the public should check the opening times at the relevant police station near them before attempting to drop off any items.
Throughout this week of action (14 – 20 November 2022) knife amnesty bins will be situated at the following police stations:
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Knife amnesty bins
Throughout this week of action (14 – 20 November 2022) knife amnesty bins will be situated at the following police stations:
- Byron House, NG1 6HS
- Bulwell Police Station, NG6 8NA
- Oxclose Lane Police Station, NG5 6FZ
- St Ann’s Police Station, NG3 3HR
- Broxtowe Police Station, NG8 6LL
- Arnold Civic Centre, NG5 6LU
- Beeston Shared Services, NG9 1AB
- Worksop Police Station, S80 2AH
- Ollerton Police Station. NG22 9QZ
- Kirkby-In-Ashfield Police Station, NG17 8DA
- Retford Shared Service, DN22 6DE
Forever knife amnesty bins
We have recently introduced Forever Amnesty bins, providing members of the public the chance to dispose of any knives anonymously with no questions asked. These bins are available year-round and are located at the following police stations:
- Radford Road Police Station, NG7 5GX
- Mansfield Police Station, NG18 2HQ
- Newark Police Station, Newark NG24 1LJ
