Daddy by day, vigilante by night - why I take knives off the streets
Faron Alex Paul helps takes knives of the streets by being a link between people carrying weapons and the police.
Friday 8 March 2019 16:24, UK
Faron Alex Paul runs an informal knife amnesty, offering people vouchers if they hand their weapons into him to give to the police.
He is contacted by people via Instagram and meets them, often alone, to do the handover, before going to police.
The 31-year-old never hands over the details of the person who has given him the weapon, but gives his own details to police. He calls himself a "daddy by day and a vigilante by night".
Here, he tells Sky News what motivates him.
Everybody wants to know why I do this - I do it because I have kids and I want them to live long and happy lives.
It's dangerous work so I try to protect myself with a stab proof vest and I normally have a friend and my dog with me, too. But you never know.
But every time I take a knife off the street I am probably saving a life and stopping someone from going to jail. To me that is worth the risk. I'm trying to help build a better future for the next generation and a situation where local communities don't need to live in fear.
I don't think what I do will solve our knife crime problem - it's too big - but if I had the backing of the authorities then maybe we would really make a difference?
Right now these kids are too scared to go to the police - they don't trust them. Why would any young kid walk in to a police station and hand in a knife? They think it will lead to more problems for them.
But they trust me and that's why they message me on social media to help them out. At the moment, I'm getting way too many messages every day for me to deal with and requests from as far away as Cardiff and Liverpool.
I wish I could respond to everyone right away but I can't. That's why if I could work with the authorities then maybe we could get more of these weapons off the street.
The key thing for me is I don't offer these kids money because I don't know what that money could be used for - drugs, another weapon or something worse.
So I give them store vouchers out of my own money so that way they are buying themselves trainers or something like that. Maybe the big shops and retailers could also get involved in this so that we can give these young kids an incentive to work with us?
I'm a father and I want it do this for as long as it's needed - and hopefully more people will join the fight.