Top NSW cop writes to northern beaches parents pleading them to take control of their teenagers

One of the state’s most senior police officers has written a blistering letter to parents on the northern beaches urging them to take control of their children, who are running amok and abusing and assaulting police and others.

One of the state’s most senior police officers has written a blistering letter to parents warning a growing number of drug-and-alcohol-fuelled teenagers are menacing Sydney’s northern beaches.

Northern Beaches Commander Superintendent Dave Darcy took the extraordinary step of penning the letter after concerned principals from private and public schools complained about their students amid soaring expulsion rates.

Northern Beaches Local Area Superintendant Dave Darcy at Manly Beach. Picture: AAP /Joel Carrett

The behaviour is being driven by about 200 rowdy teens, with 21 young people having to be picked up by their parents when they were found drunkenly wandering the streets last weekend following a police crackdown on bad behaviour.

“I am also surprised at the freedom enjoyed, particularly by the 13- and 14-year-olds who are roaming our streets at midnight under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” Supt Darcy said in the letter.

“It’s behaviour that’s escalated from the problematic to, in some cases, the criminal. People, including police, are being attacked and injured.”

The letter was distributed throughout local schools on Monday. A government source said at one school expulsions had soared to 25 this year when there had been just five this time last year.

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A message to parents from the Commander Northern Beaches area command, Superintendant Dave Darcy. Supplied

A teen is taken into custody after a brawl erupted at Newport earlier this year. Picture: TNV

But the NSW Education Department claimed last night expulsion and suspension rates across the northern beaches had remained “consistent” over the past two years. In the letter, Supt Darcy warned parents and their children that the shocking misbehaviour was being captured on officers’ body-worn cameras as well as security cameras on buses.

“If we don’t stop them on the night, we will use the video and audio captured on these cameras to determine who they are, where they live and come knocking on their parents’ door.”

The Daily Telegraph can reveal a wild brawl involving up to 150 teenagers erupted outside Warriewood McDonald’s at 11.30pm on May 4.

Numerous teens had to be subdued with capsicum spray.

“It started when two girls got into a fight and tumbled down the hill,” a witness said.

“It was absolutely wild, a lot of them were really drunk.

“I reckon there was about seven girls I saw sprayed. Parents were running in with water bottles to wash their eyes out.”

Youths as young as 12 were taken into custody after a brawl in Newport. Picture: TNV

Supt Darcy confirmed the incident, saying the behaviour of young people that he was seeing was some of the worst witnessed in his career.

“With even more than three decades as a police officer, I find the levels of anger and aggression some young people are bringing to the streets particularly confronting,” he said.

The veteran officer said the actions were perpetrated by a core group of “about 200” youths. “They cross school lines and interact on Facebook. I do want to stress this is a group of 200 or so — out of thousands of teenagers across the area — who are misbehaving,” he said.