Wiltshire
Police Comment on Knife Crime Figures
Over the past few days there has been some media
coverage about Wiltshire Police's approach to tackling knife crime. In
order to address some inaccuracies please find below some figures which
show the actual situation in relation to people arrested for carrying
a bladed article.
Previous stories have referred to 148 people being caught with a knife.
This is not the case and the figure relates to the total number of stop
and searches where an officer has had reason to believe the individual
was carrying a bladed article. Where people are found carrying knives
unlawfully in Wiltshire they will be arrested.
The most recent figures available are for the period 1 March - 3 June,
2008. These show that 15 arrests were made in the Force for possession
of bladed articles. Of these, 11 people were charged (73.3%), one person
was cautioned (6.6%) and no further action was taken against two people
(13%). One person remains on police bail pending further enquiries.
