Police Given Powers To Force Children Out Of Wimbledon Town Centre

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Move follows reports of fighting between rival schools

Children can be forcibly removed from Wimbledon town centre by police after reports of fighting between "rival" schools.

A school dispersal zone was put into place on Wednesday (April 25) due what the police said was a "rise in youth violence between children from a collection of local schools."

In a statement on Facebook, Merton Police said: "Rowdy groups of children have been reported fighting between each other and causing an anti-social environment in public areas.

"The schools with children involved are working in partnership with our safer schools teams and in the most part have been quick to act to find the children and discipline them appropriately.

"The dispersal zone enables us to remove children under 16 to a place where they live or a place of safety. So we will be removing all the kids involved."

They also said they had CCTV evidence of an incident that took place on Tuesday afternoon, and would use the "appropriate means" to deal with anyone who could be identified.

They added on Wednesday afternoon: "We’d like to thank the local schools for their positive position in supporting police action in the town centre. We are pleased to say that youth disorder was minimal. Youths from schools across Merton have already been identified through proactive working by officers in partnership with our schools."

Their original Facebook posting has attracted more than 100 comments in response.

April 27, 2018