An award-winning York tour guide says the police presence on weekend nights “has sort of disappeared” – despite more incidents of trouble.
Alicia Stabler, who runs the hugely popular Bloody Tour Of York in her character of Mad Alice, has been guiding people around York’s historic sites for many years.
It usually means her groups come into contact with revellers in the city centre, particular at weekends.
And it’s then that she would like to see more police officers on patrol.
Speaking to the David Dunning Sunday night show on YorkMix Radio, Alicia said her training as an actor, a stint at York Dungeon and her years of doing the tours means she is prepared for most things on a night in York.
And sadly, being a target for drunks is not a rarity.
“I do do the tours in costume, in character as Mad Alice,” she said. “You could say that’s probably an easy target for people, but I’ve been doing this for such a long time now that there’s nothing that you can say to me that I haven’t heard before.
“I know how to look after myself and how to keep visitors safe.
“When you do encounter those kind of drunken hecklers, if they are a bit abusive, or if the tirades come out of them, I just get more embarrassed than anything else.
“Because I’ve got visitors who are coming to York for the very first time, international people, and it’s not the York that we want to portray.”
Alicia added: “I don’t understand why people can be quite rude at times. The more it happens, the more I just think I shouldn’t have to deal with this.
“And something that I have become aware of recently is that, on lively nights such as Friday and Saturday – and even Saturday afternoons – the police presence in York has sort of disappeared – they’re not there.
“You’re wandering around the streets, particularly on a Saturday, and you just don’t see anyone. I go from all the way around the Minster, right the way through the centre of town, down the Shambles, up to Clifford’s Tower, and just not a peep.
“I don’t know why it’s been like that when there are more and more incidents happening in recent years, but the police presence just isn’t there.
“There used to be a time when you could walk around and you would always bump into police, but not so much anymore.”
Jo Coles, the deputy mayor of York and North Yorkshire, is in charge of police, fire and crime.
She told the show: “We’ve had £2 million of additional funding for neighbourhood police this year, which means we’ve got 32 new police constables, 20 new PCSOs coming in to North Yorkshire Police.
“That just means additional visible policing in every community in the region, which is really good.”
A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “We do have regular proactive patrols within York’s night time economy. On days where we have big events in the city, the numbers of officers who are on these patrols increases.
“Over the summer our York Chief Inspector Ryan Chapman and Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Page joined a routine Friday night foot patrol in the city centre.
“This involved walking the beat with officers as well as joining partners such as the York Rescue Boat to ensure that we maintain the joint up approach for keeping people in the city safe.”
Further details about that can be found here.
