A SCHEME to crack down on anti-social behaviour by using visibility of police officers has been a success, an inspector said.

Inspector Gareth Cust, of the North Flintshire policing team, said despite having limited resources, he aims to increase police presence when required.

He said: "In these times of finite resources we review our visibility in our communities. To ensure that, we now deploy our resources in such a way that we are addressing threat harm and risk in our communities and visibility is important in this.

"Police visibility may be by conducting foot patrols from community officers or officers in marked and unmarked vehicles. Our tactics depend on what our objective is in that area."

A marked police car dedicated to tackling anti-social behaviour on weekends and during school holidays has been running since March and has so far proved to be successful.

The car consists or one PCSO and one officer who will target specific hotspots that have been reported to the force.

The inspector added: "We've got a calendar which shows the places we need to target that weekend, where people have asked for patrols.

"The control room will know which officers are assigned on that car and they can send them to any jobs that come in.

"It's been successful so far, it's well received by officers and in the community. It's an effective way to combat anti-social behaviour and show our visibility."