AS British Summer Time ends, so the crime season takes off. Extra hours of darkness are just what the burglar and vandal ordered.

But the defiant message today is that we can flush these rats out of the shadows and into the spotlight of justice.

In separate initiatives, the police and City of York Council are sending out the same message: with your help we can, and will, crack down on the criminals and the yobs.

Their interventions are much needed. In recent weeks, we have reported a litany of anti-social behaviour. Gangs on bicycles vandalising York market; morons bombing phone boxes; sneak-in thieves robbing pensioners; thugs assaulting innocent residents - the list is as relentless as it is depressing.

And that all happened before the clocks went back. However, some light was shed on this gloomy picture today. Operation Ratcatcher is back, and bigger than before. The scheme encourages law-abiding people to call a dedicated Crimestoppers number with information on the "rats" who plague the community.

Last year's initiative, backed by the Evening Press, cut house burglaries in York and Selby by a third. There is evidence that the expanded scheme is already working.

Meanwhile, the council has pledged to make tackling anti-social behaviour a priority.

Both schemes will stand and fall on the public's response. The police can only investigate a suspect once the identity is known to them.

The council can only act against the yobs with evidence. It will take a renewal of public spiritedness, and not a little courage, to reclaim our streets.

But we know the alternative. In the Evening Press tonight three Tang Hall families articulate the misery of living with rat rule

We should be united in our determination to repel the vermin from our community.

Updated: 11:59 Monday, October 27, 2003