EXTRA police officers will be on hand tonight to combat teenage ‘trick or treaters’ this Halloween.

The annual holiday has become a scourge for St Helier residents in recent years with small gangs of youths running riot on several town estates. First Tower has been the focal point for trouble for two years running and last year’s problems included ‘eggings’, errant fireworks and a vandalised burnt-out car.
As part of Operation Focus, officers from the Housing Department and States and honorary police will tonight be targeting ‘hot spots’ where trouble has been experienced in the past. A police spokesman said that they wanted to make sure that Islanders were reassured during Halloween.

‘In the past it has been a very busy night for police,’ the spokesman said. ‘The main problem is that people can find gangs of trick or treaters quite intimidating and we hope that the evening goes smoothly without any problems.’

The police received over 40 calls at Halloween last year from Islanders asking for police assistance. Around half of those related to incidents of egg throwing and the rest were about fireworks, underage drinking and stone throwing.