LANCASTER police this week declared all out war on drunken thugs in the city centre.

Inspector Andrew Rhodes - in charge of policing the city's social and business centre - said that known trouble makers would be forced out of town.

His get-tough message comes after a spate of violent late-night attacks in Lancaster and a package of measures have been drawn up.

These include:

making arrests for relatively minor offences early in the evening - before drunkenness and violence has a chance to spread.

prosecuting known thugs under a tough new government policy which would limit their access to areas of town. If those prosecuted broke their conditions they would immediately be sent to prison for six months.

deploying mounted police and dog handlers around the city's streets.

using mobile video recording units to gather evidence and video gangs.

continually front up troublesome gangs in the city centre.

set up meetings with pub licensees in the city to discuss ways they can work together to reduce crime. The first meeting will be held on December 8.

As well as stressing that they wish to work together with the licensees the police will inform them that they will oppose any more late licences. Mr Rhodes, who has policed Blackpool and Preston for most of his working life, stressed that Lancaster was still a very pleasant place to socialise and was relatively trouble free.

He added: "There is trouble here but I know that most of it is caused by a small number of people. If we target them everybody else will be able to enjoy night out in Lancaster. CCTV is having a positive effect and our pub watch scheme has been a success. A lot of our proposals like high visibility policing and mobile videoing units will actually have a calming effect. A lot of what we plan to do is in partnership with other groups. This is about stopping trouble and letting the vast majority enjoy their time here."

He added that one effect of CCTV was on police who, for the first time, actually had a chance to see a lot of violent crime take place. He said: "Just last Friday night there was someone beaten up who ended up with a broken nose. In the past we would just have seen the result and, perhaps, not made too much of it. But when we saw just how nasty an attack it really was on the video it changed our perspective. It was actually started by two girls of about 16 and eventually the whole gang got involved. It's our job to get nasty attacks like that stopped."

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