Concern over police staffing levels has risen again this week as residents have reported more anti-social behaviour by a group of youths over the weekend (June 10-11).

Police confirmed on Monday (June 12) that they had responded to a report of a fight on Saturday night but that there were no arrests made, damage reported or injuries received. An Okehampton officer added that on attending the scene no one was located or any allegations made but they believe the disruption had been caused by a group of young people who smashed glass bottles.

This incident follows on from another which occurred a week earlier when a group of three teenagers were attacked in Simmons Park. This prompted one victim’s mother to start a campaign to increase the number of police on Okehampton’s streets.

These are the first major incidents of anti-social behaviour to rock the town in many months with Simmons Park park keeper James McGahey saying the CCTV cameras in the park were working well and that the incident last weekend (June 3) was the first in six months.

However, another council worker has reported frequently cleaning up broken vodka bottles and wiper blades, which are believed to have been left there by the group of youths, from the town’s streets.

It is not yet clear whether this is the start of a new bout of anti-social behaviour, but Cllr Tony Leech hopes that it is just ‘a blip.’

He said: ‘I think it’s probably a blip but whether the police have got enough [staff] to cover even the blip? It’s a general concern. It’s what the authorities do to make them see that it is anti-social and affects lots of people. 

‘Some of these youngsters might not understand the knock-on effects to what they do. If it’s anti-social and they’re damaging people’s property, it costs those people either insurance or when it comes to their health and wellbeing, it can cause them stress and causing all sorts of problems. These kids probably just don’t think about it at the time. It’s how we get that [message] out.’

‘One of the questions ought to be, what did the police do before we had CCTV? Society has changed a lot but we should just turn the wheel again it and go back to basics instead of relying solely on technology.’

This raises the question of whether there are enough officers to patrol areas of the town without CCTV and deal swiftly with youths behaving in an anti-social manner.

Gabbie King, the mother of one of the teenagers attacked in Simmons Park, is now campaigning for more officers to enable the police to attend more calls and deter anti-social behaviour.

She said: ‘The police’s workload is ridiculous. They’ve joined up to the service to do a job and they can’t do the job they want to do because they haven’t got  the staff to manage it all.

In response to concerns over police officer numbers, Okehampton Police explained that staffing levels are based on the crime rate over the previous 12 months. This means that towns with a low crime rate are allocated fewer officers than towns and cities with a higher crime rate. However, Okehampton Police did add that they had seen an increase in officer numbers over the last few months.

Sergeant Tom Ottley from Okehampton Police, said: ‘Staffing in West Devon is set based on statistics of incidents from the previous 12 months.

‘In the past few months there has been an uplift in staff in the West Devon area across Neighbourhood and Response functions which has increased front-line officers available to respond to incidents. 

‘Our response to incidents are assessed on threat, risk, harm and the immediacy of any of those aforementioned factors. Police will not immediately respond to all calls for service as this would be unrealistic and unsustainable. I understand this is frustrating for the public as every call they make is the most important one to them, but we need to prioritise.’