Weapon seizures (FOI)

​Request

How many items have been seized as weapons by the police in Jersey over the past three years?

Could you also give details of the type of objects.

Response

Since 1 January 2015 to 11 November 2017, the States of Jersey Police have recorded 75 weapons as being seized on the police property system from 56 separate events.

These events range from weapons being handed in, to items being seized as evidence of a crime. The weapons range from knives of all kinds to swords, knuckledusters, baseball bats and martial arts equipment such as rice flails. The States of Jersey Police have also recorded a sock full of rocks, intended to be used as a cosh during a fight in a pub car park, a spear, a studded wooden club and an axe.

Knives range from kitchen knives to flick knives, lock knives, hunting knives, gravity knives and butterfly knives.

If an individual uses a weapon during a fight (an Affray) or when committing an assault, the offence of ‘Possession of an Offensive Weapon’ will be added to any Assault or Affray charge. However the ‘Possession’ charge may later be dropped at court if the penalty given for this offence would be insignificant compared to the penalty given for the Assault or Affray. The penalty for the more serious offence will include an aggravating factor due to the use of a weapon. These cases are included in ‘cases prosecuted’ in the table below and therefore the ‘cases prosecuted’ figures in the table below differ from the States of Jersey Police Annual Report figures solely for offensive weapon prosecutions.

Some cases where it is alleged a weapon was used may not, after investigation, be recorded as a crime of Possession of an Offensive Weapon if the evidence does not support the allegation. As a result, the figures below for reported cases of Possession of an Offensive Weapon will differ from the recorded crime figures in the States of Jersey Police Annual Reports.