Churches and Wiltshire Police team up for Knife Amnesty
What is the Church doing to tackle knife crime?
Rob Jackson, Outreach Lead at St James Devizes, with the Revd Dr Keith Brindle, the Revd Jennifer Haynes, and the 'Bin The Blades' bin
Revd Dr Keith Brindle, Vicar of St James' Devizes, says:
"As individual churches and as a diocese we are always looking for opportunities in which we can support our communities, so following a conversation between St James Church, Devizes and Wiltshire Police we became aware of Operation Sceptre, the national knife crime awareness campaign and amnesty.
"We have always shown our support for initiatives like these but here at St James we wanted to do more. During our initial conversations with Wiltshire Police we learnt that during the Op Sceptre knife amnesty last year most amnesty bins across our county were located in police buildings and subsequently it was felt this may have impacted on people’s decision to bin their knives and weapons.
"To encourage more people to dispose of knives safely we knew we could help by offering our churches as amnesty bin locations.
"We know from Wiltshire Police that knife crime in our county is low, and what we see in the news about other cities and towns is not reflected here.
"But as the police tell us just one incident is too many and can have devastating consequences. We need to take action now to raise awareness and educate each other, and remove knives from our community.
We are delighted to share that following these conversations we are working in partnership with Wiltshire Police on Operation Sceptre."
The campaign will run from Monday 16 September until Sunday 29 September, and as well as raising awareness of the risk and consequences of carrying a knife, Operation Sceptre gives the community the opportunity to dispose of knives and bladed weapons safely without fear of prosecution.
During the two week amnesty, bins will be located across the county including 4 of our churches and venues:
St James, Devizes
St James, Trowbridge
St Andrew’s, Melksham
SP2, Salisbury
All locations will advertise when they are open for the amnesty, and visitors may see an increased police presence around these locations as they patrol the perimeters of each venue and drop in on a regular basis.
Dr Brindle adds: "It is a first for us and I’m sure a first for Wiltshire Police, but I hope that this will be just the start of our partnership - working together."
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