The police officer in charge of the neighbourhood police team in West Devon has said he is ‘100 per cent’ prepared to use emergency powers to crack down on alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour in Okehampton.

Sgt Chris Chaloner’s assurance comes after police used an Emergency Dispersal Order to disperse more than 20 youths congregating and drinking in the Meadows in Tavistock at the weekend.

He said did not rule out using one in Okehampton too in the future.

‘Definitely, 100 per cent if we get an influx of calls from members of the public reporting that there are large groups gathering in Simmons Park who are causing anti-social behaviour or causing people harassment that is something we will do in Okehampton as well as Tavistock,’ he said.

‘Last weekend, what was happening in Tavistock was enough to meet the threshold of one of these orders.

‘A number of officers had been out patrolling on a Friday night and they came across a group of 20 plus in The Meadows.

’Communication didn’t go as well as we would have hoped and it was anticipated that it would escalate into anti-social behaviour and criminal offences and that was why the decision was taken to make a dispersal order.

‘It gives the police the powers to ask those committing anti-social behaviour to leave and to arrest them if they don’t.’

His comments come as officers stepped up their patrols in Okehampton in the wake of an increase of anti-social behaviour in Simmons Park and the skatepark.

Police in Okehampton continue to investigate an incident in which a youth was discovered with a hammer at the town’s skatepark.

The youth and another teenage boy, who police said were ‘under the influence of alcohol’, were apprehended when officers were called to reports of a large group congregating and causing anti-social behaviour.

The two teenage boys were returned home to their parents who were fined for their breach of covid restrictions.

Admitting that anti-social behaviour as flaring up in the town as the third lockdown started to ease, Sgt Chaloner said: ‘There are have been a couple of incidents of criminal damage and incidents of bullying other kids and assaulting them and that spreads out into the wider town as well, with incidents of shoplifting. We had a shoplifting at the Co-op the other day.

‘Simmons Park and skatepark are both identified as areas which are a high priority at the moment.

‘We want to reassure the public that we are listening and trying to do something about it.

’We are doing priority patrols, which means that officers are patrolling the park more frequently.

‘The whole neighbourhood police team do try and identify individuals that are causing problems and we will deal with them as robustly as we can within the legislation.

‘We are very reliant on the public telling us when there are issues, at the time they are happening.’