Police target anti-social behaviour in Wath

North Yorkshire Police have issued a warning to residents across the county ahead of Black Friday.

WATH Upon Dearne is a focus of police attention as they clamp down on knife crime and anti-social behaviour.

South Yorkshire officers have been running an operation to take offensive weapons off the street.

Amnesty bins were placed at two Rotherham town centre locations.

The police action included calling at retail outlets to check if laws were being observed - selling most knives or any weapons to anyone under the age of 18 is illegal.

During September police received four reports of incidents involving a weapon in the Cawood Drive area in Wath.

Police investigations were concluded without any charges.A spokesperson told the Advertiser: “We know incidents involving weapons cause a significant amount of concern in our communities and we are delivering a range of proactive work to tackle this issue.“This includes participating in Operation Sceptre, a targeted week-long campaign aimed at detecting, preventing and reducing knife crime.

“Drug warrants with links to the supply of drugs and knife carrying have been executed and test purchase operations have been carried out at retail stores alongside Trading Standards to ensure they are complying with the correct rules and procedures when it comes to the sale of knives.“Every year, we take part in this important national week-long campaign to combat knife crime and get dangerous weapons off our streets for good.”

Across the whole of Rotherham there have been 368 reported offences of offensive weapons in 12 months.

Also in September, the Wath area suffered a slightly higher number of reported anti-social behaviour (ASB) incidents compared to the previous month.In the area around St James Close, there were 12 crimes reported in this month, all anti-social behaviour, which represents an unusual uptick.The SYP official said: “We have recently announced additional funding received by the Home Office to fund extra officer patrols, as part of efforts to tackle anti-social behaviour.“Wath upon Dearne is one area in Rotherham that is currently benefiting from these increased patrols, which have been funded for the next two years.“A total of £2.4million has been given to South Yorkshire Police as one of ten pilot forces in the country to trail this Home Office initiative.”Police say there were fewer reported ASB incidents in October, which will be welcomed by the community.