Young vandals in North Wales should not face prosecution, says police commissioner

Young vandals should not be prosecuted as a criminal record could limit their life choices, says the North Wales police and crime commissioner.

Speaking at an economy and place overview and scrutiny committee, Andy Dunbobbin told Conwy councillors it was important to understand the reasons behind vandalism.

He was taking questions from Conwy councillors at the economy and place overview scrutiny committee when Cllr Simon Croft raised the topic.

Cllr Croft said: “We’ve had some reports in our committee recently about extensive and very expensive vandalism to our public toilets, which has meant we’ve had to take a number of them out of service.

“And we’ve been told that even though we have captured these events on CCTV and even have real witnesses, council staff themselves, there has been an unwillingness to take it to prosecution, and this is something we really need to have done and made an example of to stop this rash of vandalism to public facilities.”

But Mr Dunbobbin said it was important police took an approach that wouldn’t damage young people who had made “poor choices”.

“I’ve read on social media. It is quite topical with the toilets,” he said.

“I touched on this during my presentation regarding anti-social behaviour hotspots. I’m sure the force will be aware of them.

“I think there is action being taken. Although people might not be getting prosecuted for that, we need to try and understand the reasons why it is taking place as well, because we can’t necessarily arrest our way out of problems.

“If you just keep re-arresting people, you are not really getting to the crux of why it is happening in the first place, so I really would look into seeing what’s going on with our youth offending teams as well, and I’m sure the appropriate referrals are being made and closely monitored by the force as well.”

He added: “So not necessarily having to come down firmly although… it’s probably best to try and divert… I would have thought it would be primarily our younger people, and for a moment of madness or really making a poor choice, I don’t think it’d be particularly fair for them to have the significant effect of having a criminal record (that would) limit their life choices in the future.

“We should be trying to find out why and addressing that as well.”

By Richard Evans – Local Democracy Reporter