Knife scanners for London as stabbings soar
Pastor Dale Morgan
Knife scanners for London as stabbings soar*
Airport-style scanners on London streets
* Story Highlights
* London police plan to use airport-style scanners and hand-held weapons
* Scanners will be used in crackdown against worsening knife crime
in London
* There have been more than 100 stabbings reported in London this year
LONDON, England (AP) -- A surge in violent knife crimes has prompted
London police to introduce a new program that will rely on mobile,
airport-style scanners and hand-held metal detectors for use against
people suspected of carrying concealed weapons.
A similar scheme was introduced in the northern city of Liverpool last year.
The new program, called Blunt 2, started this week in one borough and
should be in place in all 32 London boroughs within the next few months,
said a Metropolitan Police spokesman, who asked not to be identified in
line with police rules.
The scanners have been in use by police for several years, but many more
have been purchased and they will now be used much more aggressively
under a law that gives police the right to search people without having
to demonstrate beforehand that there is reasonable cause to believe they
are committing a crime, the spokesman said.
"We've put it in under Section 60 of the Public Order Act, which is
slightly more in your face," the spokesman said. "We can give officers
on the ground the powers to go ahead and do it. We've got 550 metal
detector wands and 244 search arches that can be used. If there's a
problem, we can place them outside a row of shops or a shopping center
and check people going in."
The spokesman said it will be possible for police officers to take the
mobile wands onto buses and check passengers for weapons.
He declined to name the borough where the program started.
London's reputation as a generally safe city has been rocked this year
by a marked increase in stabbings, with more than 100 reported in the
capital so far this year. Most have not been fatal, but the slaying
Monday of a 22-year-old man outside a McDonald's in the busy Oxford
Street shopping area generated gruesome headlines.
The victim, who had been facing charges for rape and other serious
crimes, was killed after an argument between two groups of young people
that took place during the evening rush hour, when Oxford Street is
usually filled with thousands of pedestrians.