Southend: Weapons seized and teenager charged after disturbance

Officers responding to an incident of anti-social behaviour in Southend recovered two weapons and have since secured a charge against a teenager.

We were alerted to a disturbance involving a group of young people in Warrior Square Park, Southend, culminating in a further call to us at around 8.50pm on Friday 23 August.

It was reported knives were seen.

After this call, our officers were on scene within three minutes, by 8.53pm, carrying out enquiries and detaining a teenage boy after recovering a baseball bat.

A knife, described as a flick knife, was also recovered from the scene.

Our investigation into the disturbance is continuing and we continue to progress enquiries.

A 17-year-old male, from Southend, who can’t be named because of his age, was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon.

He has since been charged with breaching a Community Protection Notice and will appear at Southend Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 24 September.

Such notices are useful tools for preventing and cracking down on persistent offending.

They can prohibit defendants from entering certain areas or else prohibit specific anti-social activities.

Investigation continues

Sgt Carly Boitoult, of Southend Community Policing Team, said:

“We are investigating several reports of anti-social behaviour linked to this disturbance and will be progressing our enquiries this weekend.
“This behaviour causes understandable concern to the community and our fast response to this incident, including making an important arrest and seizing weapons, shows we are taking this issue seriously.
“Throughout the summer, the busiest areas of Southend are patrolled by dedicated teams of officers under Operation Union.
“This weekend will be covered by this operation and you can expect to see officers out on high-visibility patrols.
“We’re confident, and the figures show, incidents of disorder and violence remain rare. But one incident is too many and we’re always alert to such reports.
“I would urge people to keep contacting us and telling us about any issues they are seeing.
“Where incidents such as this arise, we will act and we will use powers available to us to protect the public.”

Wider work to keep Southend safe

Overall crime continues to fall in Southend.

There were 1,500 fewer crimes reported across the district in the last year (a 6.5 percent fall), with 1,000 fewer violent crimes (a 12 percent fall) and 80 fewer sexual offences (a 10 percent fall).

Knife crime is down by more than 11 percent in the last year, while anti-social behaviour reports are down 22 percent.

Under Operation Union this year, we’ve made more than 75 arrests and carried out more than 230 stop searches, with more than 40 percent leading to illegal items being discovered, and we’ve seen violence and anti-social behaviour reduce.

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