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Article : Your Local Store - Helping to Combat Knife Crime

Date: Friday 13th September, 2019

The Metropolitan Police Knife Crime Unit held a training session at Scotland Yard to help show retailers what they can do to help combat knife crime. Representing Mica, Jenny Robinson & Jay Millett of Merlin Mica Hardware were invited to attend where they met Andrew, Bira CEO, alongside representatives from a variety of retail sectors such as DIY and cook shops, as well as other interested organisations.

The main objective of the initiative is to lower knife crime rates, particularly around London, although the training is applicable all across the UK. The metropolitan police hope that by providing a good practice guide, and by improving awareness with retailers, knives are kept out of the hands of vulnerable people.

The training is designed for everyone involved in the sale or delivery of knives including managers, retail staff and delivery drivers, and was led by a police detective, a National Business Crime Centre developer and a London Trading Standards representative. This training was trialled with the retailers using their smart phones to follow along and their feedback has been used to create a final training package that is free to all and available to download now.

Being able to effectively ASSESS, CHALLENGE and CHECK age are the main principles of the training and this package comprises of five modules with easy to follow animations and knowledge checks each taking about 10 minutes to complete. The modules include:

1. Safe storage & display of knives
2. How to ASSESS age
3. How to CHALLENGE someone for ID
4. How to CHECK ID properly
5. When to call the police

The Merlin Mica representatives were impressed by the of security at Scotland Yard itself, and after completion of the training were able to enjoy the sights available to them of the Thames River from the roof of the building for an enjoyable end to a serious day.

Said Jenny Robinson “We found the event really informative and will carry out the module training with our staff back at the shop at our next staff meeting. It’s really positive that the police are engaging with independent retailers as well as chain stores.”

The training toolkit is available to all retailers at https://nbcc.police.uk/guidance/knife-retailers-toolkit which includes the new training modules, good practice guide, staff training records & checklists, Public facing & staff only posters.

 

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