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Search forHEAR ME OUT SAYS MOSQUITO'S MAKER
Friday, November 21, 2008, 07:00
Howard Stapleton wants to work with the council to regulate use of the high-pitch sound security equipment, which critics say discriminates unfairly against young people because only they can hear the noise.
A council panel says the Mosquitoes should be banned and the money spent on youth workers to combat anti-social behaviour.
But Mr Stapleton argues that the noise devices should be kept to boost the youth services budget – because they generate tens of thousands of pounds in savings by deterring crime.
He said: "Used properly the Mosquito is a very effective tool against vandalism and anti-social behaviour.
"They were never intended to create 'no-go' areas for teenagers.
"I'd like to go to Plymouth so I could put my case and work with the council."
The Mosquito emits a high-pitched nuisance sound which is usually only audible to anybody aged under 25.
Older people are normally unable to detect the sound because of natural degeneration of their hearing.
They are used to stop groups of young people congregating outside shops and other premises. Mosquitoes are also employed to stop vandalism when schools are closed.
The city council's buildings surveyor has said that Mosquitoes on three of the authority's properties in Whitleigh were saving the Plymouth about £54,000 a year by deterring vandals.
Opponents, including the Children's Commissioner, Sir Albert Aynsley-Green say the devices should be banned because they target all young people, regardless of their behaviour, and create a dangerous divide between young and old. The human rights organisation Liberty says they are a 'sonic sound weapon'.
Mr Stapleton said: "People talk about civil rights – well what about the rights of the shopkeepers to carry out their trade? What about the school in Plymouth that has seen vandalism fall to zero?
"Many teenagers agree with me. They don't feel safe to go out because of gangs of youths."
Mr Stapleton, a security expert from Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, invented the device to protect a teenager – his own daughter, Isobel.
"When she was 15, she went to the local shop to buy some milk and couldn't get in because there was a drunken gang outside," he said.
He was asked by the shopkeeper to use his skills to come up with something to deter misbehaving youths. The Mosquito was born and trialled at the shop.
Three years later, his company Compound Security Solutions, has sold 4,000 Mosquitoes, mainly in Britain but also around the world.
Mr Stapleton said he could not see how anybody would object to a Mosquito being used to deter crime at a building such as a school to which there was no right of access out of hours.
His company required proof of a problem with anti-social behaviour before supplying one of the devices to an individual.
And Mosquitoes in use to protect premises such as shops were fitted with an automatic cut-off which stopped the sound after 20 minutes, to ensure they were not used continuously.
"I would like nothing more than to solve the problem of anti-social behaviour by young people – which I read costs this country £3billion a year – and make myself redundant," he said.
"I am just a concerned father of five children."
The city council cabinet this week decided they needed more information before deciding whether to ban the Mosquito.
Meanwhile Mr Stapleton has developed a new version which is audible to all ages and irritant only to some – depending on their taste in tunes.
The Music Mosquito plays royalty-free classical and chill-out music as a calming influence and is due to be launched at a community safety project in Bristol on November 28.
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BUZZ WORD: Howard Stapleton
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