A police campaign to tackle knife crime is reaching thousands of people every day.
Victoria Centre donated advertising space to the campaign free of charge to help officers highlight the issue.
Officers from the City Centre neighbourhood team approached the centre having had the idea of displaying our messaging through the giant screen.
As a result, bosses agreed to display an advert until the end of this month that says: “Worried someone you know carries a knife? Report it online or call us on 101. Or report anonymously via fearless.org or Crimestoppers.”
The advert was produced by Nottinghamshire Police in partnership with Violence Reduction Partnership and the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, as part of Operation Sceptre – a national knife crime campaign.
The week of action aims to highlight some of the work being done to reduce knife crime in the county, focusing on preventative measures and the actions the force is taking to combat knife crime including increasing patrols and taking dangerous weapons off the streets of Nottinghamshire.
Sergeant Paul Whitehead, of the City Centre neighbourhood policing team, said: “We are extremely grateful to Victoria Centre for supporting this important campaign.
“The message is an important one. We are fully committed to taking knives off the streets but we need the public’s help – if you have information about knife crime or someone in possession of an offensive weapon, we need you to come forward and speak to us.”
Nigel Wheatley, centre director at Victoria Centre, said: “We’re pleased to be playing a part in supporting Nottinghamshire Police’s latest initiative.
“As a public venue, the safety of our shoppers, staff and retailers is always our number one priority. Any initiative designed to ensure the city centre remains a safe place for everyone to visit is welcomed and we are happy it’s being promoted via the centre’s giant screen.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with the Nottinghamshire Police team in the future.”
Nottinghamshire officers are carrying out a range of different operations and public engagement work throughout the Op Sceptre week of action.
Neighbourhood policing teams are visiting schools to educate children about the dangers of knife carrying..
Arrangements have also been made for groups of young students to visit the Ben Kinsella Trust ‘Choices and Consequences’ exhibition at the National Justice Museum in Nottingham.
More than 2,000 children have visited the workshop since 2019, with the museum, which is free for children Year 5 and above to attend, teaching visitors about the devastating impact of knife crime.
Amnesty bins have been set up inside various police stations across Nottinghamshire – include Central Police Station in Nottingham city centre – as part of the campaign, where people can dispose of unwanted knives without getting in trouble.
Neighbourhood policing teams are also doing knife sweeps around hot spot areas, deploying metal-detecting knife arches at different locations, and carrying out extra patrols and search warrants.
Around 200 weapons were handed over or discovered by Nottinghamshire Police as a direct result of similar operations during the last week of action in November 2022.
Outside of Op Sceptre, the force has two dedicated knife crime teams, who specifically target this type of offending all year-round, with their regular patrols alone leading to just over 200 blades and offensive weapons being taken off the streets in the last year.
This valuable work has helped see a 2% reduction in knife crime over the last 12 months, while reported offences have reduced by 7% in the last year when compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic.
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