Portable knife scanners – which can detect blades hidden in clothing and bags from 10ft away – to be trialled by police later this year

Portable knife scanners that can detect knives from around 3 meters away will be trialled by police later this year.

Chris Philp, the Minister of Police, announced on Tuesday that the Home office looks at wearable devices where knives are hidden under layers of clothing and in bags.

The radar image scanner is the size of a large mobile phone. One model being demonstrated to officials can detect weapons from 10 feet away and distinguish between knives, keys and phones.

It is hoped that police can search the crowd for weapons rather than relying solely on physical searches.

Mr Philp said the devices could be less intrusive and increase the proportion of stops and searches that are assessed as positive from 25 per cent to 30 per cent.

Portable knife scanners that can detect knives from around 3 meters away will be trialled by police later this year (file photo)

Police Minister Chris Philp said the Home Office is investigating wearable devices showing knives hidden under layers of clothing and in bags

“We could physically stop and search people who are very likely to be carrying knives,” he told The Telegraph.

‘This could significantly increase accuracy and therefore be less intrusive.

“It can take hundreds, if not thousands, of knives off the streets.”

The Home Office is investigating versions of the technology developed by five different companies so that police officers can test it in knife crime hotspots by the end of 2024.

If officers are alerted to a weapon by the device that records its location on a screen, they can use that evidence as “reasonable grounds” to stop and search the individual.

According to the Office for National Statistics, knife crime rose by 7.2 per cent nationally to almost 50,000 offences, close to the previous record of 51,200.

In London, which is responsible for more than a third of all knife crime in England and Wales, a record high of more than 14,500 offenses was reached in 2023.

But police stops and searches have fallen by 46 per cent to 547,000 since 2013/14, when Theresa May, then home secretary, restricted the powers over concerns that the armed forces were discriminating against black people, who were stopped seven times more often than white people .

Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned earlier this week that the number of stops and searches has been halved as officers have lost confidence and fear being accused of misconduct.

His force carried out almost 20,000 stops in January 2022, but that had dropped to just over 9,000 by December last year.

Concerns have also been raised about weapons missed during house searches.

Last year, a loner who shot and killed a police officer who was looking for him at a police station was sentenced to life in prison.

Louis De Zoysa, 26, shot and killed Sergeant Matt Ratana in 16 seconds with a foot-long antique revolver hidden under his jacket, which had been missed by officers on the street during an earlier stop and search.

One of the new scanners demonstrated to the Home Office was developed by US company Lassen Peak, which recently hired Graham McNulty, the National Police Chiefs’ former leader on knife crime, as a consultant.

The company uses terahertz frequency imaging radar, the same technology used in airport body scanners, but the company said it was distilled into a single microchip.

Mr Philp said there is still work to be done on the technology, but it is getting there.

The devices could be less intrusive and increase the proportion of stops and searches that are assessed as positive from 25 percent to 30 percent (file photo)