Today (Friday) marks pay day for many workers and the last day of school for the summer break.

And with warm weather due it is expected to be a busy evening in Douglas for police.

The Douglas Neighbourhood Policing Team will be carrying out its next phase in Operation Cartography – a multi-agency approach aimed at providing reassurance to the community over antisocial crime and is also aimed at engagement with young people who frequent Douglas in the evenings.

Douglas Neighbourhood Policing Team will be utilising a number of resources for the operation, including additional uniformed officers, plain clothed officers, the criminal investigation department, dog section as well as the mobile closed-circuit-television unit.

Douglas Corporation Enforcement Team will be patrolling with officers as a means to identify quality of life issues and byelaw offences.

Plain clothes officers will be patrolling areas where antisocial behaviour and minor instances of criminal damage have occurred.

Officers will be seeking to engage with the youths and to ensure they are safe. But officers will be making intervention where offences are committed.

Constable Paul Kemp says: 'This Friday is expected to be unique as it is pay day, the last day of the school year and to top it all off, it is expected to be an extremely warm evening which indicates a potentially busy time in policing terms.

'Due to this we expect there to be a large number of people from all corners of the community in the town and surrounding areas as well as youths wishing to celebrate the end of the school year.

'One of the main aims of this operation is the safety and security of the youths. We, the police, know that the vast majority of the youths are out to enjoy themselves in an appropriate way but sadly, one or two go out with other intentions.

'This is where we need the parents to help us out by ensuring that they know where their children are at all times.

'We want the youths to come to us and understand that we are in the area to look after them, not criminalise them but we need the parents to assist us preventing their child becoming a police issue.'

Police are duty bound to ensure young people that have been drinking get home safely or, in a worse case scenario, that they receive medical treatment.

This inevitably means that the parents will be contacted.

Following this the parent and child would be expected to attend a Juvenile Alcohol Referral Scheme evening, usually on a Friday evenings, so that the dangers of alcohol can be understood and so parents can learn about the signs of alcohol abuse.

'In relation to the elements of the operation not related to youths, there is a clear message from the police: we want everyone to enjoy themselves but that anyone who becomes involved in anti-social or criminal behaviour will find that a robust police response follows,' added Constable Kemp.

'These people with the wrong intentions need to be careful as you don't know whether the person stood nearby is a police officer.

'We are there to ensure that everyone has a safe night and will not allow unacceptable behaviour to ruin the night for the law abiding community and the youths of Douglas.'