Plymouth Police support young people enjoying the City. Enjoying the City does not include doing so in such a way as to cause fear, harassment or distress to others. Young people in large groups, dking under age are a recipe for just that.
The Herald has covered some of o work this weekend. PC Mike Wilkins from our licensing department has been arranging special patrols to deal.
In the article Mike says, "86 cans and bottles of beer, 20 bottles of cider, eight bottles of wine, 30 alcopops and two bottles of spirits were confiscated from under-18s on Friday and Saturday nights in a targeted operation. The patrols are continuing next weekend, and after that we will build on the intelligence gathered on this operation to continue tackling under-age drinkers.
We used alcohol-screening kits for the first time to confiscate booze which is otherwise hard to smell or taste, such as vodka concealed in cola or orange juice.
The kits - sticks which change colour on contact with alcohol - were used on four occasions over the weekend to prove soft drinks contained alcohol.
As well as the alcohol seized Mike and his team did 31 Youth Intervention Profiles, these forms, devised by the licensing office; record the names and addresses of youths who have alcohol taken from them. For each one completed, a police officer will visit the child at home over the next few weeks and discuss their behaviour, attitude and circumstances with the parents.
To see the full article, click below:
Herald Article: Police call time on teen boozers
We also had Spotlight out with us on Friday evening. Inspector Gary Neeves and his team were out dealing with disorderly young people.
To see the article, click here:
Spotlight Feature: Police move to disperse gangs
I do want to emphasise, we take no pleasure in moving kids on. We would much rather be working, alone or with our City partners in developing useful and stimulating activities for them. Our officers and PCSO's are involved in a whole variety of work with young people which we will look to do yet more of. That being said, our priority must be to ensure that people of all ages feel safe in their homes and on the streets. To that end we will constantly deal with disorder, whether created by young people or others.
