Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

Large haul handed in by Chatteris boy as part of knife amnesty

Police say a large haul of knives was handed in by a boy in Chatteris as part of
last week’s knife amnesty.

The collection of more than 20 knives was surrendered by the youngster after he emailed police to arrange handing them over.

He confided in officers that he didn’t feel comfortable travelling to a knife amnesty bin to hand them in, and that he used to collect them but didn’t want them anymore.

Officers visited his home under a new scheme piloted during the amnesty, where two dedicated email addresses were set up for people who wanted to dispose of weapons but, for whatever reason, couldn’t make it to the special bins.

Police have also been carrying out knife sweeps of hot spot areas, conducting test purchasing at shops with volunteer police cadets to make sure knives aren’t sold to those under 18, and visiting schools to educate the younger generation on the consequences of knife crime.

A police spokesman said: “Thank you to one young person in Chatteris, who had these at his home but emailed one of our knife amnesty mailboxes to say he’d like to hand them over to us.”

For more information and advice on knife crime, including where to get support, visit the police’s dedicated web pages.

Dear Roy,

A total of 98 weapons or knives have been handed in during our latest amnesty to tackle knife crime.

The amnesty starts the conversation about knives, but we’re keen to get to the root cause of the problem. We’ve also launched resources for parents and carers and continue to work with schools and young people to talk openly about their concerns and the dangers of escalating conflict with knives.

During the amnesty week students heard real life stories from our safer schools officer, and on court experience days used role play to act out scenarios and worked alongside a practicing magistrate and a crown court judge. 

After highlighting these a further eight schools, and one university, and now interested in doing similar.

The new way to dispose of weapons, where people could email us and officers could arrange home visits, worked well and more than a third of amnesty items were handed in this way, including 24 weapons handed in by one man alone in Chatteris. 

There were an extra 220 hours of foot patrols in Peterborough, Cambridge and Wisbech during the week, together with knife sweeps in hotspot areas and test purchasing with our volunteer police cadets to ensure no knives were sold to those under 18.

We’re working hard to tackle knife crime but we can’t do it alone. Having one honest conversation with the child or young person in your life could make more difference than you think. 

For more info, advice and support around knife crime, see the
force’s dedicated web pages.