7:00pm Saturday 1st November 2008
By Gina Marden
YOBS hurled lit fireworks twice at police after officers took to the streets in force on Halloween.
A team of uniformed police from Billericay armed themselves with video cameras to film gangs of youths getting up to no good across the town.
Officers patrolled trouble hotspots in Noak Bridge, Lake Meadows and South Green on foot at the start of the evening to keep an eye out for troublemakers and to ensure festivities went off without a hitch.
But a team of one constable and two police community support officers came under fire in the Lake Meadows area when a group of around 15 yobs threw lit fireworks, which narrowly missed them, before running off.
Hours later, a group of lads, thought to be the same bunch, again targeted the officers in the same park.
Police chased them and filmed them as they walked through the nearby Queens Park estate.
During the evening officers stopchecked youths in the park in Osier Drive, Steeple View and confiscated alcohol.
But the evening was otherwise quiet for the officers.
PC Julie Dawes of Billericay police said the operation - codenamed Leopard Cub and similar to Operation Leopard which saw officers harass, film and photograph yobs in Vange earlier this year - aimed to disrupt anti-social behaviour.
She said the crackdown, which has been running for the past two weeks, had seen nearly 130 youths stopchecked, booze confiscated and one person arrested for possessing cannabis.
PC Dawes added: “Whenever we stopchecked a youngster a letter has been sent home to their parents informing them that this has happened.
“We will be sending out letter to residents in Noak Bridge, Lake Meadows and South Green at the end of the operation to get their feedback.”
Across the whole county on Halloween, police said they received 100 fewer calls from residents than last year and dealt with 287 Halloween-related incidents.
Most of the calls were about criminal damage and anti-social behaviour.
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.echo-news.co.uk