Specialist equipment to help tackle a rise in knife crime across Staffordshire are being placed in police vehicles.
Knife wands – hand held metal detectors used for searches – will be introduced for officers along with bleed kits to help victims.
It comes after a performance report revealed a 23.7% increase in knife crime in the Staffordshire Police area in recent months compared to the previous year.
Chief Constable Chris Noble said funding had now been received to purchase the new equipment.
“We have seen some concerning increases in different parts of the county that we’re working hard to understand why. Some are related to drugs – very often there’s no particular pattern but knives are so readily accessible.
“We want to put bleed kits in police cars so we can respond, keep people alive and deal with some really traumatic injuries. All our armed response vehicles have trauma-capable staff in terms of dealing with some of the most significant injuries.
“We’re doing knife sweeps in parks and we’re looking to introduce knife wands in our vehicles as well so we can conduct more informed stop searches, which are going to be proportionate and appropriate.
“But it’s ultimately about trying to send out a message that you cannot carry a knife and not have consequences about that.”
Chief Constable Chris Noble, Staffordshire Police
Police say they are also organising events to raise awareness of the consequences of carrying knives and planning action to tackle repeat offenders and focus on hotspot locations.
