Thurrock Council Leader, Cllr Rob Gledhill, has hailed as a huge success the work carried out by Essex Police, Thurrock Community Policing Team, in tracking down one of the organisers behind car cruiser meets in Thurrock.
Officers were able to identify one of the owners of one of the larger car cruising Facebook pages. They then visited him and served him with a Community Protection Warning, which prevents him from:
- organising any car meets
- promoting organised car meets on social media
- driving in an anti-social manner.
Cllr Gledhill said: "This is an excellent bit of police work. By tracing one of the organisers, Thurrock Police officers have tackled this issue at the root and served a powerful warning to anyone who thinks they can organise anti-social car cruising events in Thurrock.
"These events are dangerous, loud and a real nuisance to both those living nearby and other road users.
"Having personally worked on a few operations with Essex Police, I applaud the actions of officers in tracking down one of the organisers of these events. Tackling this issue by hitting those who are flouting the law in selfishly organising events and hiding behind false social media identities sends the message 'you can type but you can't hide'. When faced with possible consequences for his actions, the organiser immediately called off an event scheduled to take place on Friday 15 July.
"The noise from this event would have caused even greater disturbance for neighbours who would most likely have their windows open in the current heatwave.
"Organisers now know that Essex Police will work tirelessly to catch them no matter how they try to hide their identity, and if they continue with their reckless activities they are likely to find themselves before a judge."
A Public Space Protection order is in place in West Thurrock to prevent car cruising events and the anti-social behaviour associated with them. Find out more at thurrock.gov.uk/pspo