Police in Swindon target OCGs after anti-social behaviour

During an online question and answer session with officers from the Swindon Neighbourhood Teams, some members of the public raised concerns about anti-social behaviour in the town.

Sergeant Ed Rogers, of the South Central team, agreed there had been a rise in masked youths congregating in public spaces.

He said: “Certainly post-Covid there is an increase of groups of youths hanging around, typically they’ll be seen riding electric bikes or scooters and wearing face coverings.

“We do target those groups.

“Where criminal offences have been committed, if they’re children, we look to work with our youth offending teams and see if we can introduce interventions to keep them away from criminal behaviour.”

But Sgt Rogers added it was important not to “demonise” young people and emphasised these individuals are often exploited by older offenders.

He said: “Quite often there is an element of exploitation, there are older individuals and organised crime groups who are looking to take advantage of those kids.

“That might be through dealing drugs, so ultimately our efforts go into targeting those individuals who are exploiting them.

“When we’re talking about children we also have to view them as victims and we have a duty to safeguard them.”