London, Dec 4 (IANS) Police in Britain’s Durham city will hand out 10,000 sweets to students to remind them to be quiet while returning home from a night out.
Launched as part of the ongoing Safe City campaign, the idea followed complaints in residential areas about rowdy students.
Officers will hand the rock sweets, which bear the messages ‘Quiet Please’ and ‘Shush’, to drinkers in Durham. These will be reserved for busy nights in the city and handed out when officers feel revellers need a reminder to keep the noise down as they make their way home, the Daily Mail reported.
Inspector Paul Anderson of Durham Police said: ‘The idea of handing out sweets or lollipops at the end of the night has been done in other areas, but we think Durham is the first to include a message aimed at those who might otherwise make a racket.
‘Late-night noise is a genuine issue for a number of our residents and we hope that this initiative will make a difference.
‘It also provides another way for our officers to engage with students and other revellers when they are out on the town.’
Safe City was launched in October by the police and other agencies, including the Safe Durham Partnership, PubWatch, ShopWatch and Durham County Council.
It is an ongoing campaign to make Durham the safest city in Britain, with success to be measured by crime rates, incidents of anti-social behaviour and public confidence surveys.
Funds for the initiative came from a number of organisations including Durham County Council, the city’s PubWatch scheme, Durham University and Teikyo University of Japan in Durham.
