Police are reminding parents to be wary of where their children are at all times.
It follows reports of antisocial behaviour by a large number of youths, in the Valley Park in Newtownabbey at the weekend – the latest ‘hotspot’ for underage drinking and criminal damage.
According to police, in this latest incident, alcohol was confiscated.
Police say their resources could be better used detecting drink drivers or working to prevent burglaries in the area.
Instead, they say their personnel are called to deal with youths causing annoyance to residents as well as criminal damage and assaults.
“Parents, do you have any idea where your children are and who they are with at the weekends? A large part of our job in Newtownabbey is tackling antisocial behaviour weekend after weekend.
“This is time we could be using for better purposes such as detecting drink drivers, preventing burglaries etc, but instead it’s call after call about youths causing annoyance to local residents/businesses, causing criminal damage, not to mention underage drinking, being victims or suspects in assaults and other more serious incidents,” said a police spokesperson.
Police say the latest ‘hotspot’ for antisocial behaviour is the Valley Park where, over the last few weeks, they have received numerous reports of around 60 to 70 youths coming from all areas.
“If you don’t know where your kids are each weekend, maybe it’s time you did before we are bringing them home to you, or even worse asking you to attend a custody suite or local A&E,” added the spokesperson.