During the last week, officers from the Mansfield Neighbourhood team visited four local primary schools to give a presentation and take questions from children. The visits, part of the national Operation Sceptre initiative, featured the tragic story of murdered teenager Ben Kinsella and were designed to empower children to make better decisions. Officers from the team visited Wainwright Primary Academy, King Edward and Sutton Road and Intake primary schools. PCSO Romek Kordecki led the visits. He said: “This is a very difficult subject to speak to children about but ultimately this is about saving lives and preventing young people from making life-altering mistakes in the future “These children are all at an impressionable age. They will soon be going to secondary school with all the peer pressure that brings so we are working to equip them with the knowledge they need to keep safe. “Even if these visits result in just one young person deciding not to venture out with a knife, they have been worthwhile – because that is one young person who isn’t either going to get hurt with a knife or hurt somebody else with one. “The various sessions we have held this week have all been well-received and the children have been really engaged. I would like to thank all the schools who have invited us to visit and look forward to working with them all in the future.” During the last month, Nottinghamshire Police has been shining a light on the ongoing efforts to reduce knife crime in our communities as part of ‘Operation Sceptre’. As part of the national week of action, which ran until 20 November, Nottinghamshire officers carried out a range of different proactive policing and public engagement work. Positive action focused on educating people, especially young people, about the consequences of knife carrying, with officers visiting schools and colleges across the county to highlight these dangers.
