Nottinghamshire Police’s brand new Knife Crime Team has hit the ground running, with its latest double whammy resulting in drugs seizures and arrests.
Some proactive policing by the force’s second Knife Crime Team, using a ‘good old copper’s nose’, has led to the discovery of two cannabis grows and the arrests of two men on suspicion of cannabis cultivation.
Eagle-eyed officers spotted some suspicious activity involving a car being driven in the Mansfield area shortly before 4pm on Thursday (25 February 2021).
They followed the vehicle and saw two men get out and enter a property in Wallis Road before returning to the car and making off.
The car was stopped a short time later and the occupants were questioned.
When officers went to the Wallis Road address they immediately noticed that all the windows had been covered, there was some odd pipe work coming from the loft area and they found some cardboard boxes consistent with the growing of cannabis.
The Knife Crime Team members also received some community intelligence from a member of the public that the vehicle they had stopped had been regularly visiting the address.
The two men in the car were swiftly arrested on suspicion of cannabis cultivation and remain in custody.
After forcing entry into the property and searching the rooms officers found and seized a large bag of cannabis and a smaller bag of the Class B drug.
When they searched the loft area they discovered a cannabis grow comprising of a number of plants and growing equipment.
A wooden bat with screws in the end of it was also found inside the address and was seized.
Further enquiries led to officers searching another property yesterday linked to one of the detainees – in Baden Powell Road, Chesterfield – where a well-established cannabis grow was found in the loft.
Police Constable Lee Huffer was among the Knife Crime Team members involved in Thursday’s positive activity.
He said: “It’s another good example of the ongoing proactive work we’re doing to tackle criminality in our communities.
“We are still early in the making as the second Knife Crime Team but as our activity yesterday shows, we are already getting results.
“We are working closely with our colleagues and other force departments to help keep our streets safe by engaging with people while out on proactive patrols and taking enforcement action where necessary.”
The launch of the second team means the force’s ongoing year-round work to drive down knife crime now has even more teeth, increasing its capacity to tackle violence and crime, remove dangerous weapons and drugs from the streets and keep people safe.
The new Knife Crime Team recruits are based in Mansfield but can be deployed anywhere in the county, acting on intelligence and targeting those involved in criminality.
They will also work closely with fellow Knife Crime Team members in the city, combining their resources effectively to help keep communities safe.
The force has been able to swell the ranks of the Knife Crime Team due to being at the forefront of the national police recruitment drive through Operation Uplift, which is recruiting hundreds of extra officers to our front line while also becoming more representative of the communities we serve.
The boost in numbers comes after latest official figures released earlier this month by the Office for National Statistics show that knife crime in Nottinghamshire reduced by four percent in the year end to September 2020, compared to the previous year.
Nottinghamshire’s fall in knife crime was in stark contrast to the regional and national picture (East Midlands regional average rise of two per cent and nationwide fall of three per cent across England and Wales).
The force’s work to further reduce knife crime is ongoing by using a combination of engagement, education and enforcement and by working closely with partners, including Nottinghamshire’s enterprising Violence Reduction Unit.
