N.Y. Police Round Up 154 Youths in Anti-Truancy Crackdown
For the first time she could remember, Sgt. Helen Rossi entered the Playland video arcade Wednesday and found a ghost town.
It was the first day of a new police program targeting rampant truancy. Playland, which is part of the glitz and grime of Times Square near 42nd Street, usually is a magnet for students cutting class.
“It’s unbelievably quiet,” Rossi said as she strolled past one of a handful of adult customers. “I guess the word got out.”
The New York Police Department sent 50 officers to seven spots where truants are known to congregate, including shopping areas, movie theaters and perennial favorites Times Square and Coney Island.
By the end of the day, the uniformed officers had rounded up 154 truants in blue-and-white police vans and turned them over to school officials, said Sgt. John Clifford, a police spokesman.
The parents of truants will be called into schools to meet with counselors and discuss why their children are playing hooky.
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