Patrol - officers in Chalkwell Park and some of the exclusion zone
PARENTS should check their child’s bags “and pat them down” before they go out in the fight against gang culture and crime, campaigners say.
The calls for action come after Essex Police revealed 15 teenagers from two gangs - the Leigh Lot and the O Block - were linked to drug dealing, violence and anti-social behaviour.
The gangs have now been banned from entering parts of Southend, Rayleigh and Leigh.
Police are also probing the gangs’ potential links to the murder of Lee Chapman in Southend in March 2020, the murder of Luke Bellfield in Leigh in February this year, as well as a disturbance in Southend in August 2020 where a man died and another suffered life-changing injuries.