With more than 50,000 school kids flooding Croydon town centre at 3.30pm everyday it can be a pretty difficult place to police.
However, the town centre police unit, funded by Croydon Business in Development, has been working not only to engage the kids but also, to keep them out of trouble.
Children flock to the town centre from the main transport hubs at Katharine Street and East Croydon station.
McDonald's in North End has become the focal point of the town centre unit after intelligence pointed to it’s use as a gang member meeting spot.
Police community support officer, (PCSO) Sara Michiels-Corsten said: “A lot of the problems with the school kids come from them just mucking around. They get a bit over excited and end up getting into trouble.
“Our main problem is with the gang members that hang around outside McDonald’s. We have a list of the known gang members so we know who to look out for.”
According to the PCSOs gang members use McDonald’s as a meeting point because of the ease with which they can see people coming.
PCSO Lorraine Thompson said: “They sit in the front windows or upstairs where they can look out. If anyone is coming they can see them from quite far off and run off if they need to.”
While the town centre has become safer, both PCSOs are still vigilant.
PCSO Michiels-Corsten said: “We tend to just stand back and see what happens, we have a very good relationship with Croydon Council and we utilise the CCTV to follow people and see what they are getting up to.
“If there is a fight, when we get there the crowd just star bursts and kids go running everywhere so we have to use whatever we can to track them down.”
McDonald’s business manager, Majdi Allan said: “It has really been an ongoing problem, but the police have been very, very helpful. It is working really well, over the past couple of days the police have been around and trouble has gone down. They were really damaging business and the reputation of Croydon but the police have treated to our concerns very well.”
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