POLICE officers out on patrol in Harlow following recent reports of knife crime seized a bladed weapon, made an arrest and recovered a bike suspected to have been stolen in a robbery.

A police spokesperson said: “Harlow’s Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) is out and about across the district, focusing on maintaining a presence in areas linked to recent incidents.

As part of this work, two officers spotted a teenage boy acting suspiciously in the area of Second Avenue, at around 5pm on Saturday 10 May.

The boy fled on foot and our officers gave chase, soon catching up and detaining him.

Our Dog Unit was called to assist with an area search, with Police Dog Khan finding a large hunting knife in the bushes nearby.

The boy was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon.

The arresting officer noted he matched the description of a person believed to have been involved in the robbery of a bicycle in Harlow on Tuesday 6 May.

The boy was further arrested on suspicion of robbery and taken on to custody for questioning.

A further search of an address recovered a bicycle, suspected to have been stolen.

“A 16-year-old boy, from Harlow, has been questioned and released on bail with strict conditions attached while we progress our investigation”.

Sergeant Andy Kirkby, of Harlow NPT, said:

“We’re proactive in working to tackle knife crime, often taking weapons of our streets, making arrests and progressing investigations into serious offending of this nature.

“I know there’s public concern around recent incidents involving knives in Harlow and that these incidents are often, rightly, well publicised.

“But they do remain rare and limited to a small number of people, usually known to us.

“The fact remains you are very unlikely to fall victim to knife crime in Harlow.

“We’re doing all we can to limit the activity and offending of those intent on disrupting the lives of the law-abiding majority.”

There have been 111 incidents of knife-enabled crime recorded in Harlow over the past year – a decrease of 12% when compared with pre-Covid levels (the 12 months to December 2019).

“One incident is one too many, but knife-related incidents are treated as a priority by teams across the force”.