Police and young people draw up contracts to stamp out crime in Littlemoor
Dorset Police say they want to work with young people and their families to tackle anti-social behaviour.
'Acceptable Behaviour Contracts' are being drawn up by police and young people in Littlemoor to tackle a spate of anti-social behaviour in the area.
The voluntary agreements are an early intervention used by police to promote good behaviour and direct young people away from crime.
It's one of many tools Dorset Police and other organisations are using to help tackle catapult attacks, shoplifting and other nuisance crimes in the area.
Police have also increased patrols in the area to deal with crime as it arises.
The contracts are part of the police's long-term approach to preventing crime in the area, without having to use stronger measures.
Inspector David Parr is on the Weymouth Neighbourhood Policing Team. He said:
"Now that we are in tune with the actual people that are causing the problems, and we know it is a very small number of families that are responsible for a large number of the issues on the estate, so we're developing anti-social behaviour contracts which very clearly state the expectations of their behaviour.
"If they breach that and they continue to breach that, that then moves forward an escalation and we can look at things like banning notices from the shops, housing tenancy breaches, we can then escalate through to parenting orders, and if all of these measures aren't successful and the person is still resistant to changing their behaviour, then we can start to look at things like anti-social behaviour injunctions."
That might include nightly curfews, bans from certain areas or groups.
Some have suggested that Littlemoor's anti-social behaviour problems would be solved with stronger police powers.
But David says going in with a heavy hand isn't the answer in this instance. He added:
"We don't want to be criminalising young people, that's not the aim of the police which is why we try wherever possible to have that engage, explain and encourage approach but where necessary we will move to enforce, and where the circumstances are right, we'll move very rapidly to that enforcement approach."
But Dorset Police aren't able to do that alone.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and in this instance, it takes joined-up working from the Police, local youth workers, Dorset Council social workers, teachers and families to address the core issues leading to anti-social behaviour.
David added:
"So we need to link that all together and look at this in totality, in a holistic way of managing this as a problem and trying to solve the problem in a sustainable way. Some of that will involve direct police activity, patrols and enforcement, but for that longer-term approach we really need to work with the families, work with the young people, work with the community and all the other groups to have that sustained problem-solving approach."