Photographs of 'Court and Convicted' on police website

By awilshaw

DEVON and Cornwall Police will display photographs of local troublemakers in a move designed to prove that officers are tackling crime and disorder.

Although the images will be on posters and a public website, the force refused to give copies of the pictures to the North Devon Journal for publication.

A police spokesman said that under the new initiative — dubbed Court and Convicted — the force will be putting up posters of pictures of a selected few criminals and people with anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs). At the moment, there are just three convicted criminals on the Court and Convicted page on the police website, and they are from Exmouth, Exeter and Torquay.

Of the 15 people with ASBOs listed on the website, two were young men from North Devon. The two young men were both under three conditions in relation to their ASBOs.

The pair must not use insulting, threatening or intimidating language or behaviour in public; they must not consume alcohol or be under the influence of alcohol in a public place, and they must not enter the Costcutter store in Forches Avenue, Barnstaple.

However on Wednesday police removed their names and pictures from the site after realising that they could not be identified for legal reasons.

The posters will, according to a force spokesman, feature people who have been "convicted and jailed for offences impacting most on communities and those who have been given ASBOs by the courts".

However, the force refused to give the Journal copies of the photos for publication.

The pictures are only available to view on the police website and on posters, a spokesman said.

Chief Inspector Keith Perkin, who is leading the Court and Convicted campaign, said: "We know the effect crime and anti-social behaviour can have on a neighbourhood and often people are not aware of the action being taken by the police and other agencies against offenders.

"The point of Court and Convicted is to give people information about who has been given a custodial sentence after committing crime in their community. We hope this will reassure them that the police together with partners are doing everything possible to make communities stronger and safer.

"It's not just about naming and shaming people involved in crime. It is about showing people what is going on in their community and also illustrating the chance of people becoming a victim of crime is very small."