Police have defended social media posts advertising an anti-social behaviour operation which took place in Lancaster city centre over the weekend.
There are ongoing efforts to try and tackle anti-social behaviour in the city centre, mainly around the McDonalds/Cheapside area. Over the weekend the local Neighbourhood Policing Team conducted an operation to try and crack down on it.
Related: Woman arrested as police crack down on anti-social behaviour in Lancaster - Beyond Radio
Prior to the operation getting underway, police had posted a number of social media messages highlighting the plans.
This move had attracted some criticism from residents, who claimed that reduced the impact such an operation would have.
Det Sgt Adie Knowles defended the decision, saying: ‘’(It was done) to mainly forewarn people that we’d be out and about and to try and prevent things happening in the first place.
‘’People ask why we put this on social media. At the end of the day it’s our job to prevent incidents, and we if we can post messages to reassure people we’re going to be out and about to stop any issues, then why not?
‘’It’s very different if you’re doing a covert operation, and there were some plain clothes elements to this one, but despite the warnings there were still some issued that had to be addressed. One woman was arrested for being drunk and disorderly. Four people were searched, and one person was issued with a ‘direction to leave’ notice under our powers to get people to move away from a certain area to prevent further issues.
‘’The operation also moved to Morecambe at one point. We’re in the business of prevention. If we can stop things happening, and social media is a great tool to help us with this.
‘’We’ll be repeating this kind of activity in the future on a regular basis to try and knock anti-social behaviour on the head, especially within the juvenile element, getting them home and making parents accountable as well.’’
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