Six people were arrested and nearly 40 others were moved on during a police crackdown on antisocial behaviour across Thanet over the bank holiday weekend.
Kent Police said dispersal orders were introduced in Broadstairs, Margate and Ramsgate as officers dealt with large crowds, especially at Viking Bay in Broadstairs. Additional patrols were sent out over the weekend, and police seized speakers, more than 50 nitrous oxide canisters and alcohol from underage drinkers. Officers also reunited four children with their parents.
The force said most visitors were respectful, but the extra patrols were needed because of pockets of incidents that threatened to disturb the holiday period. Across the weekend, officers carried out 10 stop searches, one of which led to cannabis being found, and issued two traffic offence reports as part of wider enforcement activity.
Broadstairs saw arrests for a range of offences, including a teenager suspected of assaulting an emergency worker and possession of cannabis. Other people were held there for being drunk and disorderly and for breaching dispersal orders. In Margate, police made arrests for criminal damage and assault, as well as for a racially or religiously aggravated public order offence and an outstanding warrant.
Police also detained several people after reports of a disturbance at a fast food restaurant on Margate High Street on Sunday. That incident underlined the reason dispersal orders were brought in across the three towns in the first place: to keep disorder from spilling across busy seafronts and nightlife spots while thousands of visitors were in Thanet.
Chief Insp Ian Swallow said police had expected large numbers of people across the district and had plans in place to tackle antisocial behaviour head-on. He said the joint approach with councils and businesses helped keep crime and disorder to an absolute minimum, despite the pockets of incidents officers dealt with through the weekend.
The result was a bank holiday shaped less by major disorder than by visible policing, quick intervention and a steady push to move trouble on before it spread. For Thanet, the message from the weekend was clear: the crowds came, but police kept the disruption contained.
