Published by Robert L Senior Reporter, on Wednesday, 15th May 2024, at 19:20hrs
Lancashire Police have been out in the Rossendale area as part of Operation Sceptre, working alongside partner agencies to tackle knife crime across the county.
Yesterday evening (Tuesday 14th May) they were tasked in visiting local shops in the area, and sadly, out of the eight stores visited, four failed by selling knives to test purchasers, who are all under the age of 18. Test purchasers volunteer to work alongside the police and trading standards to combat the illegal sale of age restricted items.
In a social media post, Rossendale Police gave an update into the operation, and they said the following,
“Operation Sceptre is in full swing in Rossendale! Last night, we teamed up with Trading Standards to join the national week of action to prevent and tackle knife crime.
Our 14-year-old volunteer managed to procure quite the collection of blades from some local shops and unfortunately out of 8 stores we visited, 4 failed the test and sold knives to our sneaky shopper.
While it’s not quite the “cutting” edge we were hoping for, we took the opportunity to remind the shopkeepers about Challenge 25 and gave them a slice of knowledge about the risks associated with selling knives.
Stay tuned for more updates this week!
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