Police target Purley school kids in knife search

10:46am Thursday 3rd July 2008

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Police used metal detectors to search Purley school kids for knives as they boarded a bus yesterday.

The exercise, part of Operation Blunt, was led by Sergeant Trevor Jenner of the Purley Safer Neighbourhood Team and took place at a Brighton Road bus stop near Purley Cross yesterday afternoon.

�It is not a short-term whirlwind offensive against knives. It is a sustained visible long-term operation and it is vital to recognise that we cannot hope to succeed by police work alone.�

Boris Johnson

No knives were found during the hour-long operation which saw around 200 youths go through the detectors.

Fifty were searched for setting off the scanners after setting metal items to one side.

About 20 police and community support officers were involved in the operation.

Yesterday the Met announced officers have stopped and searched nearly 27,000 youths since the operation began and seized 528 knives.

There have been 1,214 arrests, 813 of which were for possession of weapons and a further 217 for knife-related crimes.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "It is not a short-term whirlwind offensive against knives. It is a sustained visible long-term operation and it is vital to recognise that we cannot hope to succeed by police work alone."