MORE THAN 1,100 knives, machetes and guns have been placed into the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner’s weapon surrender bins.
The secure post box sized containers, dubbed knife bins by many, are strategically placed across the region as part of a concerted effort to get weapons off the streets and reduce violence.
In all there are 24 bins across the region including in Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre and Far Gosford Street in Coventry.
The weapon surrender bins are designed to provide somewhere for people to anonymously dispose of unwanted or illegal weapons, including knives, machetes and guns.
All of the weapons will be carefully destroyed.
Weapon surrender bins are just one way Simon Foster, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, together with the Violence Reduction Partnership, has put in place to prevent and tackle knife crime.
Mr Foster also invests in a programme in schools which has so far educated more than 50,000 young people on the dangers of knives, a scheme in A&E departments to untangle young people from a life of violence and mentoring classes for children who it is thought could be drawn into crime.
He said: “It is pleasing to see a huge number of knives and other weapons being dropped into my weapon surrender bins.
“Hundreds of dangerous knives are being taken off the streets thanks to the network of secure metal containers that I have installed and every single one is potentially a life saved.”
