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Beat the Heat (at Video Games)

by Chris Remo, Jan 18, 2006 10:00am PST
Related Topics – Games: PC

The number of youth crimes in the Moredun area of Edinburgh, Scotland has changed dramatically in recent weeks--and local police say it's the fault of video games. Law enforcement officials have launched a program to keep kids out of trouble by occupying them with other, less harmful, activities. Dozens of teens have been participating against officers in weekly contests featuring games such as Gran Turismo, Pro Evolution Soccer, and Tiger Woods. The catch? They can only take part if they haven't gotten into trouble recently.

Since the scheme kicked off, the number of youth-related crimes in the area is said to have fallen by half, and police are now considering holding more contests across Edinburgh. ... Speaking to the Daily Record, competition organiser PC Rod Robinson said: "Basically, they had nothing to do so there was nuisance and rowdiness which led to a lot of calls."

"It took them 15 attempts to beat me at Gran Turismo but they thrashed me at the football," he said. "They were always telling me they would beat me next week. It showed them we're not just cops in uniforms."

Those contests lasted five weeks, but its success seems to be prompting Edinburgh police to expand and renew the program. It just warms your heart, it does.


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Comments

12 Threads | 32 Comments
  • #28
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    By: alnya This person is cool! x
    Reply
    I used to work at Wester Hails Library in Edinburgh, which is another area which used to have a high crime rate, especially with fed-up kids. We had a bunch of segas, nintendos and PCs with doom and terminal velocity and operated a good behaviour policy. Act up, you go on the list. on the list, can't play. Thing was, it was fairly self policing, with most of the kids keeping tabs on the others and reminding them that they wouldn't get access to the games. Worked pretty well, so i'm glad to see something like that happening elsewhere :)
    most of the time these kids wern't evil incarnate or anything, they were just bored out of their minds.
    Jan 18, 2006 2:19pm PST