Just days after Island Echo published a story about the Isle of Wight being home to the largest amount of teenage tearaways, the Area Commander for Isle of Wight Police has said that much of the issues involving young people and criminal activity – such as anti-social behaviour – are ‘seasonal’.
As previously reported by Island Echo, recently released figures from the Ministry of Justice rank the Isle of Wight as the worst place in England and Wales for teenage tearaways.
The Isle of Wight’s offending rate per 100,000 population in 2023 topped the charts at 340, with a total of 39 new offenders recorded last year.
Other locations ranked worst in England and Wales include Nottingham (326 per 100,000), Bury (318 per 100,000), Manchester (302 per 100,000) and Blackpool (276 per 100,000).
In response to the story, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary has stressed that youth-related public order offences in the South are down by some 33% and that much of the issues in dealing with crimes involving youths on the Island are seasonal.
Superintendent Rob Mitchell, Isle of Wight Area Commander, said:
“When dealing with young people who have become involved in anti-social behaviour (ASB) or criminality, we always seek to strike the right balance of diverting them away from crime and any associates who may be exploiting them, and also exploring prosecutions where it is necessary to do so.
“We don’t want to alienate or unnecessarily criminalise the Island’s young people, as there are also anti-social adults on the Island. Where we deal with youth ASB and crime, we work with our Community Safety partners and local services to provide opportunities for young people that will steer them away from this type of activity, and enable them to make a positive contribution to society as they mature.
Article continues below this advertisement “Sadly there are a very small minority who do require more robust action through the criminal justice system where it is necessary and proportionate.
“This combination of diversionary multi-agency work, and bringing young people through the criminal justice system, does have a positive impact on driving down youth-related crime and ASB.
“Taking the Bay area for example, the South Wight Neighbourhood team’s efforts, alongside partners such as Community Action IOW, to tackle ASB through Operation Spider in Sandown, Shanklin, Lake and Ventnor has seen ASB reduce by 49% since September last year. Of this, 25% relates to youth ASB.
“Similarly, youth-related public order offences are down by 33% in the South.
“Much of the issues we see involving children and young people are seasonal, with peaks typically occurring in the summer months. Ryde NPT experienced issues last year in particular with ASB around the Esplanade and Pavilion, however key members of the group involved in this behaviour have since been dealt with through Youth Conditional Cautions and referrals to the Youth Offending Team.
“We are not complacent, however, and do recognise that ASB still affects our communities across the Island. Where this is being reported to us, Neighbourhood teams are dealing with it and working with partners to seek longer-term solutions to achieve reductions like those seen in the Bay area.
“We encourage people to keep reporting incidents to police so we can take the most appropriate action.”
Never heard such rubbish,its year round,has this idiot got his eyes shut?
Get the courts to provide some decent sentences, especially for repeat offenders, community service wtc doesn’t work.
The Police are so busy reading peoples tweets and posts that they ignore anything that they aren’t specifically forced to do. If these ‘troubled’ teens were posting anti religion or immigration opinions they would already be serving a few months in a young offenders. It’s strange that posting a comment can have you arrested and in court then jailed within 5 days, but even with evidence it takes them months to process anyone else. It’s time to stop the rhetoric and start to help everyone, not just politicians.
Maybe if they manage to stop the ones on the electric motorbikes that ride around and no helmets and just a ski mask on that would be a start. that’s probably 90% of the criminality is done by!
you can guarantee that these kids have got no insurance and when they cause an accident or hurt themselves, it’ll be the poor car drivers fault not their own.
This is a very poor response with confused rationale that smacks of grasping at straws. What is Donna Jones doing to hold the Chief Constable to account for this situation?
What a load of tosh! We, as a nation has gone soft on most minor criminal acts. All these people that make these silly laws never get there property robbed or attacked in broad daylight. Until it happens to them, they will change nothing.
They think they are far away from this, but soon it will be on their doorstep after taking all the vermin over spill from the mainland, just for extra money.
The government are totally ruining this country, thinking that all different nationalities can live together in harmony. Unfortunately real life is not like this. These people come to our country because of our values and system. As soon as they’re here and legal, they want to change it!
Get the police actually arresting people for crimes, no matter how trivial.
New York, many years ago had a 3 strikes and you’re out policy. This cleaned up crime and made the city a good place to live and visit.
We have a prison empty, get it back open and lock these bastards up!