Support for #KnifeFree campaign at Derby fixture

Support for #KnifeFree campaign at Derby fixture

Activity delivered with West Yorkshire Police at Elland Road.

A ground-breaking partnership between West Yorkshire Police and Leeds United Football Club to help tackle knife crime is continuing after the club showed its support to the campaign at Saturday’s game.

The club devoted an entire page of the matchday programme for the fixture against Derby County to its support to the project to tackle knife crime.

There was a mobile van with a big screen outside the ground prior to kick-off displaying #knifefree messages and in the week leading up to the match, West Yorkshire officers delivered a workshop around the topic of knife crime to youngsters taking part in a Premier League Kicks session with the Leeds United Foundation.

The support came as the Force took part in Operation Sceptre – a national week of action to tackle and raise awareness of knife crime. It was also supported by the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Mark Burns-Williamson.

Detective Superintendent Chris Gibson is West Yorkshire Police’s lead on Serious and Violent Crime, he said: “I can’t thank the club enough for the work they did with us and the continued support they are showing.

“By working with Leeds Untied we can get our vital messages out to people about the potentially devastating consequences of knife crime. The club is a powerful voice and ally in the community and can reach more people than we could ever hope to do so.

“We wanted to do something a little bit different to mark Operation Sceptre and our work with the club meant we were able to do that. We have more work planned with Leeds United going forward.”

Michael Kinsey, Operations Executive for the Leeds United Foundation, added: "It's been great working so closely with West Yorkshire Police on this #knifefree campaign over the last week, it's such an important topic to tackle in our city and showing a united front between the two parties will hopefully have helped to make people take on board the risks and raise awareness around the subject.

"Officers delivered a really crucial workshop with some of the children the Foundation work with as part of the Premier League Kicks programme and I think being able to show them how dangerous carrying a knife can be and how other young people have been able to turn their life around was really impactful." 

As well as the work with the club, West Yorkshire Police marked Operation Sceptre with test purchase operations, knife sweeps and arrest enquiries. Over 900 arrests have been made since April as part of Operation Jemlock and more than 80 weapons seized.

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