Dangerous weapons seized in week of action to reduce knife crime
West Yorkshire Police carried out sweeps of parks and open spaces in Wakefield, Kirklees and Bradford
Dangerous weapons have been recovered, special crime deterrence and knife sweep operations conducted and school visits made in a special week to reduce knife crime.
Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) officers have once again been busy across West Yorkshire as part of this Spring’s national #Sceptre initiative to reduce and raise awareness of knife crime.
The week saw officers conduct extra high visibility patrols in ‘hotspot’ areas for knife crime and sweeps of parks and open spaces in Wakefield Kirklees and Bradford.
A number of weapons were recovered by officers including a machete, and a host of blades seized from the secure knife bin in Huddersfield town centre.
Uniformed police also attended at Wakefield bus station with knife arches in order to reassure travellers, while Kirklees officers took part in a wide range of other activity.
That included visits to schools and educational establishments to warn children about the dangers of carrying knives, and spot checks on Huddersfield shops to ensure retailers were complying with legislation regarding the sale of knives.
Meanwhile, Bradford officers also deployed with the force’s new Live Facial Recognition (LFR) cameras in the city centre.
LFR itself is used in carefully selected authorised locations across the county to help identify individuals who are wanted by the courts, subject to arrest, or pose a risk to the public, as well as missing persons and victims of offences such as modern slavery.
The technology, deployed in two clearly marked vans, works by scanning faces in real time and comparing them against an authorised watchlist of individuals of legitimate interest to the police.
Faces that match the biometrics of someone on a watchlist will create an alert, while data relating to all other faces scanned by the system will be instantly deleted. LRF itself is not used for mass surveillance or indiscriminate monitoring.
Police operations to reduce knife offending continue to be supported by partners, including the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP), which is delivered by the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin. Established in 2019, it provides key interventions across communities to reduce and prevent violent offending.
Between April 2025 and March 2026, the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership has supported more than 16,000 young people under 25, and almost 1,000 adults since April 2025. It has also trained over 1000 professionals.
Superintendent James Kitchen of West Yorkshire Police, said: “Our neighbourhood policing and neighbourhood teams are rooted in their communities, and this latest Sceptre week has seen them take a lead on combatting knife crime at the grass roots level.
“We have seen officers locate weapons, and engage in a swathe of knife crime prevention work including focussed patrols in offence hotspots and widespread community engagement work.
“Officers in Bradford also worked with colleagues to again deploy Live Facial Recognition in the city to help search for wanted suspects and also missing people."
He added: “Education continues to form a crucial part of our work to reduce knife offending, and officers have again been active in schools, colleges and with third sector partners to engage with young people.
“It is this work and support from communities which will be key in the long term from deterring young people from ever wanting to carry weapons of the sort officers recovered in this week of action.”