Knife arch 'won't change anything' say East London market traders in town 'plagued by stabbings'
A knife arch initiative in East London, which saw metal detectors placed outside Barking Station for four hours, is 'not going to change anything', say stallholders working outside the entrance. As part of a nationwide initiative known as Operation Nightingale, local police areas are able to 'borrow' a knife arch for a few hours every two to three months to try to catch and deter criminals on town high streets.
It was set up in Barking on Thursday, September 19 with Sergeant James Kent from Barking MPS explaining that the knife arch initiative aims to drive down knife crime in the area. But stallholders have said a knife arch appearing every couple of months won't make much difference.
One stallholder, who didn't want to give his name, told MyLondon: "If they put the knife arch in every day, then it'll help." He added: "I saw in my eyes so many big knives, but we can't do anything. I saw a couple of months ago, they robbed the boys near the bus stop. They're carrying knives, but we can't tell anything."
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He said 'there's no point' calling the police, as it would risk being able to keep his business going. Another stallholder said of the knife arch: "It's not going to change anything", claiming people with knives simply won't come into town while the arch is in operation.
But Davy, who works in one of the food stalls outside the station, thinks that the knife operation will have a positive impact in the future. He told MyLondon: "Today it's bad, but thinking of the future it's good. Barking is getting bigger, there are more buildings, more people. When there are police outside the station, no-one comes, but in the future the station will get cleaner."
Preet, who lived in Barking for 30 years and was visiting the town with her friend Annette, said she thought the knife arch would make Barking safer. She said: "There's a lot of knife crime in this area.
"You always see helicopters around at night, so you know something's happened. There's always knife crime or stabbings." Annette added: "If someone's going to go somewhere with a knife or a weapon, they're going to do it regardless, whatever you've got there. They've got to make it mandatory."
Sgt Kent said they target times when they know the station is busiest: "More people see us doing what they want us to do, trying to take knives off the street, and obviously we've got more chance of apprehending people that might be carrying knives because of the increased footfall." The initiative takes a significant amount of manpower to run, with around 10 officers on duty around the arch at any one time.
Sgt Kent said that the arch works in a similar way to airport security - if someone walks through it and it goes off, at first an officer will just ask if someone's carrying some keys in their pockets. But if they then take out their keys and go through it again and it goes off, officers may then use stop and search powers to investigate further.
"We can't physically force people to go through", Sgt Kent said. "I wouldn't say loads of people refuse to go through. It may just increase our suspicion as to why they're refusing to go through."
He explained that based on data, knife crime is largely committed by boys and men aged between 16 and 30. "So anyone of that age range, of all colours, we would probably be asking them to walk through the arch."
He added that soon after knife arch operations begin, people begin contacting their friends to warn them about the knife arch and that police are at the station. This is part of the deterrent aspect of the initiative, which aims to keep criminals out of busy town centres.
Got a story for us? Email anna.willis@reachplc.com.
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