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Knife detectors to be installed in Manchester schools?

21/01/2008

Home secretary Jacqui Smith has hinted that metal detectors may be installed at some secondary schools in Greater Manchester to prevent pupils from carrying knives.

Ms Smith is due to announce details of the proposals in a speech in February but she drew attention to the plan yesterday in a television interview with the BBC.

Under the measures, search arches will be installed at the gates of certain secondary schools in Manchester and other big cities.

"In some schools it might be appropriate to use search arches because I want young people to know that it doesn't make them safer to carry a knife," she told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show.

"It actually makes them more likely to be a victim. I mean the vast majority of young people don't carry knives. Let's be clear about that."

The home secretary also reiterated Gordon Brown's announcement that police officers in 12 knife crime hotspots around the country - including Manchester - will have the powers to enforce a 'presumption of prosecution' policy.

Official figures show that there were around 5,500 serious crimes involving knives within a three-month period last year in Greater Manchester.