Town Centre takes tough stance on knife crime

Date published: 17/11/2008

An airport-style knife detection arch was recently deployed in Rochdale Town Centre at various licensed premises and at the Job Centre to send out a message that knife crime will not be tolerated in the town.

Although none of the venues involved had been identified as having a specific problem with knife crime they all wanted to take part as a pro-active approach to tackling the issue of knife crime in society.

The Town Centre was visited by members of the Home Office who were interested to see the approach that Rochdale Town Centre was taking in light of the current national knife crime issue and to pass on information and guidance to other towns.

Town Centre Management and the Police thanked all of the businesses and partners who participated during the operation, which proved to be a success, with numbers of arrests made for drug related incidents.

A spokesperson for Town Centre Management said: "Overall the operation provided a deterrent to anyone intent on causing problems in the Town Centre."