North Yorkshire Police warning ahead of half-term
NYP tend to see an increase in the amount of anti-social behaviour during school holidays
Children in North Yorkshire start their half-term holiday today and while many will be safely enjoying their time off, some might be getting up to no good.
Some families will be taking advantage of this week off to get away and go on holiday now that a lot of Coronavirus restrictions have been lifted in the UK and Europe.
However, others will be staying at home as parents struggle to take time off work – and North Yorkshire Police are urging those parents to have a chat with their children.
NYP tend to see an increase in the amount of anti-social behaviour during school holidays and they are expecting to see the same again this time around.
“What we need from the parents is to be having discussions with their kids, so they know where they are because it’s really important that we are engaging with them to stop them congregating in groups, getting into trouble and causing an adverse impact within the community,” Sergeant Jack Waterton explained.
“What we’ve seen is an uptake in groups of youths that are within the town centre and sometimes the sheer size of the group can be quite intimidating for some people. It’s about that engagement with them and educating them how best to conduct themselves when they are out.
“So, I think that the best initial engagement comes from parents in that they can talk to their kids, discuss the dangers of being involved in anti-social behaviour and criminality, what impact that could have on their future, higher education or job prospects.”
To try and stop anti-social behaviour before it even happens, North Yorkshire Police are changing the areas where they normally patrol to target the places young people normally hang around and will be increasing their presence in the day, but they don’t want that to alarm the general public.
Waterton said:
“We’ve looked at previous year’s figures, so what we’ve been able to do is identify certain hotspots of where ASBs are occurring to deal with any reports of anti-social behaviour and reassure the public that we’re there to deal with it and to make them feel safe.
“What we don’t want to do is see youths being put through the criminal justice system and having that negative impact on their futures.
“But by all means if members of the public are phoning us, saying that there’s ongoing crime, there’s a risk of harm to the public and if we need to arrest them then we’ll do that.”
Schools in North Yorkshire broke up for half-term on February 18 and children will return to classrooms on February 28.