A police team started late-night patrols in Oxford to combat a wave of vandalism from drunken yobs.
Follwing a rise in petty vandalism in Headington over the past few weeks, the neighbourhood team has been on the streets until 3am at weekends to try to tackle the problem.
Neighbourhood officer Pc Chris Miles said: "Over the course of four or five days we received six reports of criminal damage along London Road, with fences being smashed.
"The times of the incidents were all after midnight, when people were returning home from pubs or clubs. We decided we wanted to do something to combat this.
"Officers have been patrolling around Headington between 6pm and 3am on foot, in cars and on our bikes, just showing people that we are about."
Pc Miles said he felt the month-long initiative was already having an effect.
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He said: "Since we started the operation at the beginning of the month we haven't had any further reports of criminal damage.
"I'm not saying that's solely down to the operation, but I think having that visible presence on the streets does make a big difference."
As part of the operation, officers have also been confiscating alcohol from people drinking in public.
Pc Miles said: "We've seized alcohol from seven lots of people and two of those were underage drinkers.
"These were mostly from within Bury Knowle Park. However, we also stopped two men walking along London Road drinking and one was found to be in possession of cocaine and was arrested.
"We also arrested another man for drink-driving and driving without insurance."
Pc Miles said part of the operation was about informing the public and making them aware of how their behaviour could be perceived as antisocial.
He said: "We don't want to come down heavily on people. In some of the cases I don't think people realised they were doing anything wrong.
"But some people can be intimidated by groups of young people sitting in a park drinking and there is also the mess that can be left behind.
"More often than not they don't clear up after themselves.
"We will also be working with the park rangers at Bury Knowle Park to look at this problem."
Pc Miles said he would be happy to talk to any residents about these issues. Call him on 08458 505505.
Posted by: Laura Norder, Restore justice on 11:04am Tue 22 Jul 08
Round up the drunken idiots late at night, strip them of keys, phones and money.
Then strip them down to nothing more than their underwear, drive them out into the countryside (somewhere a long way out like the Ridgeway) and force them to walk back to wherever they come from, they'll sober up fairly quickly and learn a lesson in the process.
Hopefully they might even get a bit of a beating from some officiers into the bargain.
Time for enforced laws with harsh penalties.
Round up the drunken idiots late at night, strip them of keys, phones and money.
Then strip them down to nothing more than their underwear, drive them out into the countryside (somewhere a long way out like the Ridgeway) and force them to walk back to wherever they come from, they'll sober up fairly quickly and learn a lesson in the process.
Hopefully they might even get a bit of a beating from some officiers into the bargain.
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