Last weekend's incident

Our apologies to Ken Maple because we were unable to publish last weekend his response to the story about youngsters drinking in the village and causing problems. He replied to a resident's question "Where's Ken when you need him?" almost immediately but your correspondent was away from Audlem and was, for technical reasons, unable to pick up his message. Ken responded as follows:

"In response to the question, "Where's Ken when you need him?" On this occasion I was at home with my family. The Friday night incident though was reported to the police, and a patrol did attend and search (unsuccessfully) for the youths. The response time was twenty minutes.

"Looking at the issue in broader terms, I would say that these types of problems are dealt with better when the police work closely with the public to address them. The successes we have had in the past have depended to a large degree on assistance given by villagers. These are public spirited people who have taken the time to note and pass on useful information which has led to identifying those who cause problems.

"I am not suggesting that people should confront trouble makers directly, but anyone can help by:-
Noting any names that the youths are heard to call each other.
Noting descriptions of age, sex, physical characteristics and clothing.

"If this information is passed to me, together with a description of the problem behaviour, then I can almost always identify those involved, as Audlem is a relatively small town and the trouble makers are few.

"The 'concerned resident' makes an important point with the question, "Do you know where your child is?" It's one that we ask parents of problem youths, and the police and youth services have strategies to deal with young offenders once they are identified. There has been a recent rise in nuisance incidents and I''m keen to discover who is responsible for them, so any assistance would be gratefully received."

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