Metal detectors plan for schools

Posted by New World Order Truth on 1/20/08 • Categorized as Nanny State

Metal detectors are to be installed at hundreds of schools in England as part of a drive to reduce knife crime.

The measure is included in a government plan to be announced next month to deal with violent behaviour.

The airport-style search arches may be introduced at the some of the country’s toughest secondary schools in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.

The plan is reported to have the backing of senior police officers and head teachers.

‘Responsive policing’

They are said to have told Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that the efficiency of the detectors in dealing with knife crime in the worst affected areas outweighed any concerns regarding pupil privacy.

Ms Smith told BBC One’s the Andrew Marr show: “I think that it’s a good idea if we look at the ways in which 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.

“It actually makes them more likely to be a victim.”

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, told the Observer newspaper: “There are schools serving areas where knife crime is high in the community and it’s right that these schools take measures to protect pupils, but this is a very small number.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “More detail will be available in the Tackling Violence Action Plan which the Home Secretary will publish in the next few weeks.

“We are continuing to tackle knife crime through responsive policing, and prevention projects which provide diversionary activities, training, peer mentoring and education projects.”

BBC | | January 20, 2008

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