Dorchester police clamping down on anti-social behaviour by young people
Police and youth workers are working together to tackle a very pandemic-problem.
Dorchester Police say they're working hard to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by a very small minority of young people in the town.
Officers are working alongside the town's youth workers to tackle problems without force.
It comes after a group of young people were caught with alcohol in Maumbury Rings earlier this week.
NOS cannisters have also been found in the playing fields behind Thomas Hardye school.
Inspector Darren Stanton told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"There's a small minority that are drinking alcohol underaged, or possibly starting to get involved in drugs. It's those children that we're trying to educate and steer away from quite a risky path."
Police are informing youth outreach workers of problem locations so they can work with young people.
They say the problem's exasperated by COVID-19, meaning young people don't have anywhere indoors to meet together.
Lydia Taylor is one of the outreach workers. She says the majority of groups don't want to cause problems:
"They don't really have anywhere else to go. One group were drinking and they said well we would go to a pub, or we would go for dinner but it's not open so we can't."
Outreach workers are in a unique place to reach young people as young people aren't afraid they'll be arrested.
But both groups want to drive home the message that the majority of young people are just out enjoying themselves.
Inspector Stanton added:
"We've got to remember that these children have spent an unprecedented amount of their youth cooped up indoors which none of the adults that we have around have experienced as a child.
"It brings with it a lot of mental health, it brings with it a lot of children who have had to cope with things that they wouldn't otherwise have coped with.
"We are seeing that they do need a bit of help."