Editorial: Foul teen talkers get the hard word

It's nice to know Rotorua's top police officer, Inspector Bruce Horne, walks the talk.

And if the talk isn't something he likes to hear, watch out.

On Friday Mr Horne was strolling through the City Focus in Rotorua when he heard obscene language coming from teenagers.

He went and had a word with the teens and told them their behaviour wasn't appropriate - giving them a chance to clean up their acts.

But still they continued; blatantly ignoring the warning.

Mr Horne responded by arresting two of them for using offensive language. One ran off and Mr Horne wasn't able to give chase as he was on his own. Once the teen is caught, he'll have another charge of escaping custody added.

It's great to hear this sort of nonsense is being taken seriously by police.

With summer coming up and the school holidays around the corner, there will be more locals, tourists and young people in our central city.

There's nothing more offputting - as well as intimidating - than groups of people hanging around like louts and spouting foul language.

We are hard up enough for shoppers in our central city. The last thing we need is groups of young people putting off the ones who do come to shop.

Every year some locals are asked to fill out a survey known as the Perceptions of Safety Survey. In this document it has become clear to local authorities such behaviour is among the worst in the minds of locals (along with having their homes burgled).

Let's clean it up and let youngsters know their potty mouths won't be tolerated in our city.

As Mr Horne put it, "Kids need to know it's not all about them."