Young people who are victims of crime, have difficulty coming forward to report incidents to the police.
This is according to information shared by local police inspector, Andy Fee, at last week’s Melksham Area Board, where he discussed recent incidents in King George V Playing Field involving young people.
The local inspector also reported that reducing crime in King George V Playing Field was a priority for the local policing team.
Over the last six months, there have been 49 incidents in the park reported to the police, accounting for 3.5% of the demand on police in the Melksham area. In response, police have increased patrols in the area, and are working with their partner agencies to increase engagement with young people in the park.
Speaking about recent incidents in the park, Inspector Andy Fee said, “There is a significant investigation with regards to an incident that happened on the 8th August – I can’t really go into it any more than that – but we are confident we’ve got some good evidence in relation to some disorder that happened in the park.
“And our plan is to take the evidence to the crown prosecution service for consideration of charging public disorder offences. There was also an incident last night (Monday 8th September) involving some young people. The difficulty police have had when they have attended incidents there [in the park] is the reluctance of some of the victims to come forward and report what has happened.
“Last night (Monday 8th September) there was information about a knife – but no knife was seen. A significant number of officers carried out searches in the park and found no weapon – there is an ongoing investigation. It is very difficult – young people who are victims are often reluctant to come forward and report what’s happened or what they have seen. So we are working with those young people to try and find out what has gone on.”
Better “diversion”, such as CCTV, and “engagement” with the people involved were suggested by Inspector Andy Fee as key to solving the ongoing problems in the park in the medium and long term.
In response to the report, cllr Phil Alford said that he was “gravely concerned” and highlighted that the skate park is attracting a number of “quite challenging” young people.
Cllr Alford also said that whilst there have been 49 reported incidents in the park, he believed that there will be “significantly more” incidents that have gone unreported.
It was proposed by cllr Alford, and agreed by all councillors, that the area board should investigate with Melksham Town Council the possibility of extending the town’s CCTV provision to include the skate park.
Whilst supportive of the proposal to increase CCTV coverage, cllr Jon Hubbard urged caution not to blame young people for all the incidents in the park. Cllr Hubbard said, “For every one incident that is reported to the police about behaviour of people in the park – not just young people in the skate park – there are eight incidents being reported in the town centre of anti-social behaviour.
“We’ve got to keep it in context so that the headline that comes out from this evening’s meeting is not that we need CCTV to control young people in the park.”
