Halloween pranksters warned to play fair

Children traditionally use the period around Halloween and Bonfire Night to knock on doors and issue the challenge of “trick or treat?”, with the trick usually being an idle threat to cause mischief if no treat is given.

But now neighbourhood policing teams are distributing posters to households which do want to take part, urging Halloween callers “please don’t call here”.

Officers are also urging residents to use common sense when considering whether to call police due to the high volume of unnecessary calls over the period.

And while advising parents to know where their children are, leaflets are also being published giving advice to the trick or treaters themselves, telling them to stay in well-lit areas, not to talk to strangers, be accompanied by an adult, and only visit houses if they know the residents.

Insp John Thirkettle, from the Beverley and Driffield neighbourhood policing teams, said: “Once again we have been working closely with the fire service, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, neighbourhood watch groups and schools to ensure we are able to protect the elderly and the vulnerable, protect unsupervised children and reduce trick or treat vandalism.

“Additional police patrols will be running each evening leading up to Halloween and across the traditional Bonfire period, and will be dedicated to addressing youths causing annoyance.

“We have already visited retailers of eggs and flour to discourage sales to children and young people over this period, and we want a very strong message to be given to the minority of young people tempted to take part in this kind of activity - don’t do it. Anti-social behaviour is taken very seriously by the police and what you might deem as a little bit of mischief can cause a real misery to some people.”