After a series of recent headline-grabbing stories detailing horrific assaults allegedly committed by gangs of youths, acting police chief David Warcup urged Islanders to focus on the vast majority of well-behaved teenagers.
He said that a hard core of a dozen young criminals accounted for just under a third of all youth arrests.
New figures released as part of the force’s report for the first half of this year show that between January and June the 12 individuals were arrested 121 times. The total number of arrests was 424.
The alleged offenders, some as young as 14, were arrested for crimes including burglary, minor assaults, disorder and theft from cars.
• See Thursday’s JEP for full story.
