Police prepare for busy Halloween

9:30am Wednesday 31st October 2012 in News

OFFICERS in Essex are getting ready for a busy Halloween.

Tonight thousands of children will take to the streets for the traditional trick or treat fun.

But the night has a darker side with a rise in anti-social behaviour which can get out of control.

Essex Police is urging the public to help them by only calling 999 in an emergency and to otherwise call 101 to raise a concern or for advice.

Claire Heath, head of customer services, said: "Essex Police is here to help everyone in need.

"However, past experience shows that during the Halloween period the 999 number is used to report matters such as young people trick or treating in a local area, or pets being scared by fireworks.

"Such matters are most appropriately reported to police using the non-emergency, 101, number.

"It is very important that the 999 number is kept free so that officers can respond to genuine emergencies as soon as possible."

Comments(6)

hughie-s says...
11:02am Wed 31 Oct 12

Wonder how long before we start celebrating Thanksgiving?

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romantic says...
11:17am Wed 31 Oct 12

hughie-s wrote:
Wonder how long before we start celebrating Thanksgiving?
Fair point, hughie! Don´t want to sound like an old fogey here, but I´m sure when I was a kid, Halloween was a very small scale thing, and the main thing was the penny for the Guy.

It does seem to be more and more a way for the supermarkets to sell more plastic stuff which will then sit in a cupboard until spring cleaning time and then end up in landfill. God help any poor child who comes knocking at my door tonight, as I´m clearly in a grumpy mood! But my wife´s much nicer than me and will happily hand out sweets all evening.

I understand there is also some sort of code where if you´ve got a pumpkin in the window, it means you´ve got stuff to hand out. Maybe if your kids are out tonight, make sure they know that, rather than suddenly arriving on some poor old lady´s doorstep en masse.

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Reginald47 says...
11:48am Wed 31 Oct 12

Seeing as though there's going to be high winds and pouring rain, they might be lucky!

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irememberwhen says...
12:54pm Wed 31 Oct 12

Another form of begging I feel

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DelA says...
2:43pm Wed 31 Oct 12

American rubbish for sale in the shops and idiots knocking on your door's for money, just give them sweets and see the look on their "BIG" faces!!

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Joker50 says...
9:52pm Wed 31 Oct 12

Some trick and treaters threw an egg at our neighbours window and our neighbour called the Police. The Police helicopter came above for half an hour but they never found the culprits. Nice to see the Police using their toy again,

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