Weapons have been found during a police operation to tackle knife crime in Thanet.
Officers recovered 11 bladed articles during a sweep of parks and green spaces in Margate and Ramsgate on Wednesday (January 29) and, in a separate initiative, officers worked with The Goose pub in Ramsgate and set up a knife detector outside the venue on Thursday evening.
Sergeant Stephen Moat, of Thanet’s Community Safety Unit, said: “The knife detector acts as a deterrent to anyone considering taking a weapon with them into the town centre during the evening. This is reflected in the fact that no weapons were found on anyone entering the premises.
“The response from both the public and the premises was overwhelmingly positive, with those out in the town happy with the actions we are taking to ensure their safety.
“We will continue to run operations of this kind to ensure the message gets out that carrying a knife is completely unacceptable. We will always seek to prosecute anyone found with a blade.”
So what fool would try and enter the pub carrying a knife when a metal detector and policeman in uniform is standing outside? They would surely just pass by and go somewhere else. It may have been successful but you can’t have Kent Police officers acting as security guards for private businesses all the time. If there is a problem then the proprietors of such businesses should employ their own security. This was nothing more than a PR exercise.
Years back there was a similar PR exercise with the police being present with a drugs dog outside “Thorleys” on one of its kiddy disco nights ( aimed at 14 -17 year olds iirc) , it was called off after a very short time as the poor old dog had just too many positive reactions, all very embarrassing and fobbed off as it being drug residue from banknotes the teenagers had handled.
“The knife detector acts as a deterrent to anyone considering taking a weapon with them into the town centre during the evening. This is reflected in the fact that no weapons were found on anyone entering the premises.”
The reason that I don’t carry a knife when I go out on the town is that most of the venues I visit (Pizza Express, Spoons, Il Tricolore, Ramsgate Tandoori etc etc) have there own. And forks, too.
Seriously, though, I suspect that the absence of knives exoerienced by the police officer was more to do with the fact that most of us don’t carry knives or any other weapons.