A national operation to target knife crime on the railways is being run by British Transport Police (BTP). It came to Harrogate railway station on Friday 17 July.
Hand held scanners and mobile walk-through metal detectors, similar to those at airports, were used as part of Operation Shield at the station in an effort to eradicate and deter knife carrying on the railways.
BTP has run Operation Shield at stations throughout the North East as part of a rolling programme including Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, Doncaster and Sheffield, Scarborough. Since April 2008 over 2854 people have passed through the detectors to date , 1395 people have been searched and 43 weapons in total have been confiscated.
Sergeant Matt Popple of the British Transport Police says: "Operation Shield is a national campaign run by BTP to tackle knife crime on the railways. There is a culture of carrying knives within our wider communities and we have to do all we can and be committed to tackling this crime and removing dangerous weapons from our streets.
“Incidents of knife crime in this area on the railway are extremely low and we are closely working in partnership with North Yorkshire Police, Network rail and train operating companies delivering a joined up approach to tackle knife crime to ensure it remains that way.
“Our aim is to make the railway environment safer and free from disruption and fear of crime and intimidation, this initiative will serve as a tool to achieve that. Passengers’ reaction to the scheme throughout the rest of the country has been very positive in the fact that they welcome the moves we are taking to challenge knife culture within our communities, we hope this will echoed in Harrogate.”
