Weapons sweep in Jubilee Park area of Ipswich as police crackdown on knife crime
Weapons found in Jubilee Park during a search last summer - Credit: Archant
Police continued to crackdown on knife crime in Ipswich yesterday by carrying out a weapons sweep in a park in a deprived area of the town.
Police search the Jubilee Park area in Ipswich for weapons. - Credit: Archant
Seven weapons, including four knives, were recovered in the Jubilee Park area by officers aiming to tackle drug dealing and anti-social behaviour.
The latest search comes after police received “intelligence” that people had been carrying weapons in the area. Some of the knives found had been stored in undisclosed areas.
In May, a hammer and two knives were found in a similar police search in and around the park, based near Victoria Street.
In the last six months of last year, police received reports of 288 crimes and 842 incidents in the area.
Frustrated residents living in the area told the Star earlier this year how drug dealing is “rife” during the summer, and others reported seeing gangs during the evenings.
Yesterday, Sergeant Kevin Lee, of Suffolk Constabulary, said: “There seems to be an issue of anti-social behaviour in the area, and that includes dealing drugs, and that serves to have a detrimental effect on the community. It is an area which has had some issues with anti-social behaviour in the area, but it is not the only one in the area.
“We are doing everything in our powers to improve the situation and the search is certainly a worthwhile operation. The idea of the search is to remove these resources from these persons. It is a disruption technique.
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“It shows the community that we are out there trying to improve the situation. It is just one of a number of techniques that we use.
“We praise the people who come forward to us and urge people to provide as much information as they can.”
No arrests were made as a result of the search, which also included the Alderman Road area, where no weapons were found.
Anyone with information about a crime should call police 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
