Police and York students have teamed up to create a hard-hitting video aiming to make young people think twice about abusing alcohol this summer.
Working with students from York College, North Yorkshire Police have released the video called #NYPThinkOfTheConsquences.
It was launched today as York’s police chief spoke of an increase in reports of more ‘menacing’ anti-social behaviour by young people across the city.
The video, to be shown in city secondary schools and shared on social media, is designed to encourage young people to think of the consequences before abusing alcohol.
Superintendent Mark Khan, the police commander for York and Selby, told YorkMix: “What’s been fed back to me from community leaders is that the anti-social behaviour that we’re having, they feel, is more menacing.
“What I mean by that is ten-year-old children, rather than shouting names as they maybe did before, and now chucking stones.
“We still go out and we still patrol the streets, we still deal with anti-social behaviour. But what we’re trying to do here with the film is to share the responsibility in in terms of prevention.”
The film is aimed at challenging both young people to think more about what they’re drinking and the effect it has on them; and parents to think more about what their children are doing when they’re out and about.
You can see the full interview with Supt Khan on the video above.
Students on the film
York College drama students are the actors in the film. It depicts young people drinking in a park – leading to fights, the intervention of the emergency services, and devastating consequences for the young people and their families.
Viewers of the video are then asked, “Is it worth it?”
Young actors in the film spoke very positively about being involved.
Finley Barrett-Carter told YorkMix he loved the experience: “Using real life police officers and a real life cell made all the difference to me, because I was like, whoa, this is quite real.”
Although he said he’d never been in a similar situation, Finley did have some insights into the reported increase in anti-social behaviour among York youngsters.
“I feel like it’s mainly to do with Covid. We were all kept in during the Covid era. When everyone came out, they were like – this is great! And got a bit too excited by the situation. Obviously that causes problems.”
His fellow actor Mia said video was a powerful medium for her generation. “With social media, you’ve got TikTok and everything now. Everyone’s on it every day.
“It is bound to come up and it’s going to catch someone’s eye.”
Here’s the full film.