Sceptre: "Sorry, I can't sell you that!" - Specialist officers revisit North Manchester with undercover cadets to test purchase knives

Two months on from the initial operation, officers from our dedicated knife crime team, Operation Venture, supported by Manchester City Council’s Trading Standards and undercover police cadets, visited several independent hardware shops around North Manchester to test purchase again whether they could obtain knives illegally.

This activity comes as we mark the national week of intensification for knife crime, Sceptre, which is particularly focussed on knife-enabled robbery this year. 

Test purchasing is vital in ensuring the shops are playing their part to reduce and prevent knife crime across Greater Manchester.

Visiting areas such as Crumpsall, Gorton, Levenshulme, Newton Heath and Openshaw, the planned day of action was targeted using intelligence from the community. 

Out of the visits on the day, only two shops sold knives to the two 16-year-old cadets, with all the shops visited after the test purchase by our officers and Trading Standards to follow-up on the experience, educate and issue information and key tactics on how to improve their obligations of checking and challenging.

It is against the law to sell to anyone who is under the age of 18, but businesses should also never sell if they have concerns about how the buyer may use the item.

The volunteers, who are Greater Manchester Police cadets, are shadowed by officers into the store and those who decide to sell the knifes will be revisited at a later date with a further planned course of action.

During this activity, two shops were revisited after failing in September and this time thankfully passed the test purchase, refusing the cadets and challenging them on their motive to buy a knife, highlighting this kind of operation does work before more robust enforcement is needed.

Retailers that sell knives to undercover purchasers will be required to undergo education sessions to help them identify signs of child criminal exploitation (CCE) and understand the impact selling knives to young people has on our communities.

The training is also set up to strengthen ties between retailers and police, with the view of increasing reporting, enabling officers to gain intelligence and take preventive action.

Sergeant Paul Heap form our Operation Venture team, who oversaw and plans the knife test purchasing operations, said: “This kind of activity is vital in our attempts to bring more of the community on board and the shops to play their part in preventing knife crime.

“Enforcement can’t tackle knife crime alone and this kind of operation isn’t to catch shops out, but to remind them of their obligations to check and challenge young people who may want to purchase a knife that could be used in a violent way.

“We are not saying all young people carry knives, but our ongoing work with the Violence Reduction Unit and Trading Standards is another tactic that is assisting us in making it harder for people to get knives onto the streets for as little as a couple of pounds over the counter.

“The cadets we have understand this and are a key part in our attempts to be proactive and do something about knife crime.

“Thankfully, most shops we visit understand the importance of their duty to challenge anyone they feel is under the age of 25, along with having sufficient CCTV coverage within the shops, especially where they sell knives, and making sure they are high up on the shelves. These little things do matter, and I would urge those in local areas to keep reporting their concerns as we do act on that information at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Our Operation Venture team, who are particularly focussed on knife crime, has made a significant dent in criminality across the force area. They’ve made 717 arrests, recovered 202 weapons, and removed them from the streets, seized 166 vehicles and over £250,000 cash, recovered over £80,000 worth of drugs, and conducted 765 positive, proactive stop and searches on key offenders since their formation over 18 months ago.