Summertime crimes
by ANDREA KIMBRIEL AND ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporters
Summer brings sunny weather, picnics - and crime. The Cheektowaga Police Department gets more calls about disorderly youth during the summer, said Lt. Ken Hycner of the Cheektowaga Police Department's Youth and Family Support Unit.

Hycner blames boredom caused by the extra seven to nine hours of free time that youth have when school is out. He said summer brings a rise in crimes committed by youth, including bicycle thefts, underage drinking and setting fires.

He said he doesn't have any statistics about the increase, but it is significant enough to warrant assigning four or five extra officers to patrol streets and neighborhood parks.

While Sgt. Mike Torrillo of the Amherst Police Department agreed that most summer mischief is due to youths having "too much time on their hands," he noted that the numbers of youth-related calls the department receives are not so different between the school year and summer, but the nature of the crimes does vary.

"We have more calls about trespassing," Torrillo said. "Kids have been found in homes that are under construction." He said that during the school year, the schools tend to report cases of juvenile criminal mischief, but those calls are often cases of harassment, stealing or physical altercations between students. The summer crimes are often property related. "Most definitely" there is an increase in youth crime during the summer, said Detective Joe Vacanti, of the juvenile division of the Village of Kenmore Police Department.

Vacanti said the extra free time

youth have in summer is a likely explanation for the rise, but violent crime committed by youth year-round seems to be increasing in the area.

There's a growing trend toward youth assaults involving weapons - for example, bats or brass knuckles. That's not to say that such assaults are common, but they are increasing, he said.

The way youth are dealt with by police depends on the circumstances, said Hycner. If police are responding to a call about "disorderly" youth playing in the street, the youth might just be told to play somewhere else. If a crime has been committed by a juvenile, the individual will have to appear at Family Court, he said.

In Amherst, youths ages 7 to 15 years old appear in Family Court.

"Parents usually don't have an idea what their kids are doing. Sometimes they don't care, but usually they don't know," said Hycner.

He had some advice for parents of teenagers.

"Just make sure you know where they are, who they are hanging out with. Make sure they are in by a certain hour. And ask questions. Talking helps a lot," he said.

Vacanti blames the "breakdown of the family structure," saying youth in single parent families tend to be left unsupervised for longer periods of time while their parents are working. And some parents are afraid to make their kids behave.

"Some kids have their parents fooled. They think the kids run the households. We counsel parents all the time. You need to get your house back," he said.

Torrillo noted that another catalyst for youth crimes is alcohol. The police departments see an increase of alcohol-related incidents during June and July because of graduation parties, he said.

"We were seeing more of an influx of alcohol- and drug-related calls about 16- to 18-year-olds," Torrillo said. "But now we're seeing that kids are becoming involved with alcohol at a younger age."

Vacanti said teenagers sometimes don't take the crimes they commit seriously because they aren't mature enough to respect other people and their property.

"They grow out of it, but earlier they don't care. We see a lot of kids that come back and say, 'I was a real punk when I was growing up. Now I'm married with kids, and I know what my parents were talking about,'" he said.

Vacanti had a word of advice for

youth who are worried that their friends might be about to commit a crime.

"Definitely do not partake. Try to talk the friend out of it, but if not, then tell somebody before they get in trouble," he said.