Ra'anana has decided to increase its activities to protect public property and the personal safety of residents.
By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
With incidents of vandalism and noisy teenagers gathering outdoors at night - a perennial problem during the long summer vacation - Ra'anana has decided to increase its activities to protect public property and the personal safety of residents, reports www.local.co.il. And as part of the new stricter policy, the city has already sent letters to three sets of parents demanding that they pay for damage caused by their teenaged offspring to public property.
According to the report, the city has decided to enforce more strictly laws requiring quiet in public areas between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Six municipal security vehicles and two police vehicles patrol the city each night, and 14 foot patrols are also at work, 10 of them in the city's park, where numerous organized activities take place at night for local teenagers.
In addition, the city has increased the number of security cameras set up in public areas, and three youths who were caught setting fire to public property have had letters sent to their parents demanding that each pay NIS 500 in damages. Complaints against them were also filed with police.
"We view with the utmost seriousness any attempt to damage public property and the peace of residents, and we are fighting these phenomena with all the means at our disposal," Mayor Nahum Hofree said.
And in neighboring Kfar Saba, that city's "Parents' Patrol" has decided to increase its activities and to send two patrols out to roam the city on Friday nights following a number of violent and rowdy incidents by youths recently, reports www.local.co.il. The parents say youths from the nearby Arab towns of Tira, Taibe and Kalansuwa are gathering in Kfar Saba's parks on weekend nights, where they smoke hookahs and some of them drink alcohol, and many local teenagers are afraid to go out because they fear being harassed or assaulted.
According to the report, parents say the number of "minority group" youths gathering in Kfar Saba parks has grown significantly over the last year, and there have been several violent and frightening incidents. The Parents' Patrol, made up of volunteers, aims to detect and deflect potential problems and calls police when necessary.
Last week, after discovering a large and noisy crowd of "minority group" youths in a park in central Kfar Saba after midnight, some of whom were clearly intoxicated, patrol organizers decided that they would send two patrols out each Friday night for the remainder of the current summer vacation.