A crackdown on knife crime is currently taking place in Islington as part of a nationwide campaign.
The Metropolitan Police will be running Operation Sceptre from Monday to Sunday to try and reduce the number of knives on the street by using surrender bins, stop-and-search and weapon sweeps. Police will also carry out ‘test purchasing’ to ensure local shops are not selling blades to anyone under 18.
Bins have been put in place for people to surrender knives without fear of prosecution. The bin locations for Islington are on Carnegie Street and 1 Moray Road.
A Section 60 order, which allows officers to stop and search any person or vehicle suspected of carrying weapons, was also authorised between 9am and 5pm on Monday due to anticipated disorder in several areas of Islington including Highbury East, Highbury West, Canonbury, St Mary’s and Holloway.
The Metropolitan Police released a statement saying: “We launched Operation Sceptre with the aim of reducing knife crime and the number of families affected by knife crime across the whole of London.
Operation Sceptre seeks to target not only those who carry and use knives but also the supply, access and importation of weapons.”
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that offences involving knives or sharp weapons are at their highest level since comparable data began to be collected in 2011.
On 29 January seventeen-year-old Nedim Bilgin was stabbed to death with a “Rambo” knife on Caledonian Road. Two male suspects, aged 16 and 17, were arrested nearby on suspicion of murder, and an 18-year-old man was later arrested at an address in Islington.
This followed the fatal stabbing on Caledonian Road of a fifteen-year-old cyclist in 2015. The National Police Chiefs’ leader on knife crime, Duncan Ball, said: “The tragic loss of life we have seen on our streets in recent weeks is incredibly serious. Operation Sceptre will bring together all 44 police forces in England and Wales in a coordinated effort to target those carrying and using knives and bring them to justice.”
The Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, Victoria Atkins said: “The recent senseless killings that have snatched young lives away have rightly shocked the country. I’m glad to see this week of action, involving every police force in England and Wales, which will take more deadly weapons off our streets.”
Since the start of 2019, there have been 39 fatal stabbings in Britain, with several victims in their teenage years.
