This paper explores the issue of the policing of young people in urban public spaces. Building upon previous work which examines how general community space in the urban environment is socially constructed, the paper discusses how aspects of police culture are linked to specific types of policing. It is argued that police practices are directed to protecting private property, maintaining personal security and at regulating the moral character of street life. In the context of a significant shift in the position of young people as consumers, it is suggested that the economic and social marginalisation of different groups of young people has fuelled an increasingly negative relationship between the police and young people. The contest over community space, and official state concerns revolving around “crime” and “propriety”, guarantee that social conflict will be heightened rather than reduced by current forms of police intervention in the lives of young people.
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