I READ with interest Sarika Sharma's report on police stopping members of the public at Uxbridge Tube station in order to search for knives [Station scanners aid police in knife crime crackdown,Gazette, June 18].
Sergeant Anthony Bennett of the Metropolitan Police said in the same article that the key age-group found to be carrying knives is males aged between 14 and 19 years old.
So, why, therefore, are the police searching adult commuters on a Monday morning?
Instead, how about directing precious police time and resources towards the real target audience of knife crime: teenage boys.
Send in police officers to schools and colleges to educate young males about the dangers of knives.
And by that I don't mean shuffle off a retired traffic cop to stand in front of an assembly hall full of bored teenagers to say: "Hey kids. Knives are bad."
Send in officers actively dealing with knife crime and let them speak to small groups of boys at a time.
Let them show the boys pictures of knife wounds. Let them describe how they've watched kids their age bleed to death.
Let the boys listen to moving testimonies from victims' families.
In other words, make knife crime REAL for young males. Most of all, emphasise that those who carry knives are most likely to be victims themselves.
It's called conditioning: and it works.
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