Public need to speak up on anti-social acts

Jun 20 2008 by Naomi Dunning, Chester Chronicle

SPEEDING cars and groups of anti-social youths on the streets in Tarporley are going unreported to the police and the village PCSO wants more people to speak out.

In recent weeks the village has seen an increase in problems related to youths and anti-social behaviour.

PCSO Emily Benson wants to encourage residents to make their voices heard and to contact her or the police about anti-social behaviour in the area.

She said: “We have trouble with cars mostly, they are speeding through the village, we have also had an incident of a driver doing handbrake turns in the car parks.

“The nicer weather has also encouraged more youths to hang around on the streets which can be a problem.”

Emily said she has been working hard to address the problems, but needs more assistance from local residents.

She said: “As police we can respond to incidents that are reported to us and we can look to put systems in place that deal with the source of anti-social behaviour.

“But we cannot be everywhere at the same time and the effectiveness of our work relies heavily on the liaison with local people.

“Intelligence and information from the community is absolutely vital when it comes to problem-solving and addressing issues in a way that will make a real difference to people’s quality of life.”

She added: “I understand that in some situations people may be reluctant to speak to police, perhaps because they are frightened by the youths who are acting anti-socially.

“But this enables those responsible to continue to act in an unacceptable way, as the police are not aware of the problems.”