Staff at Falmouth and Penryn's university campuses have been given certain police powers to improve security and reduce anti-social behaviour.

Nine security officers with the Falmouth Plus (FX Plus) Campus Security team have been given extra enforcement powers by Devon & Cornwall Police, which can be used across both campuses and the university halls of residences.

It means they can now deal with any low level anti-social behaviour that might occur, with the power to request the name and address of anyone acting in an anti-social manner, confiscate alcohol from anyone under the age of 18 and tobacco from anyone under 16.

It will now be a formal offence should anyone not comply with these requests from those accredited.

Sector Inspector Martin Roberts, from Devon & Cornwall Police, said: “We are extremely pleased to have been able to accredit officers with CSAS powers within Falmouth University.

“We have already undertaken much work with the university to reduce anti-social behaviour and the scheme will now allow us to build closer links and help provide a safe community for students to live and study in.

“Allowing organisations to have CSAS powers also allows us to extend our policing family – they are not a replacement for our local teams but complement them.”

The powers have been given through the police's community safety accreditation scheme (CSAS), which has been running since 2005. It is hoped that closer links can now be formed between police and the university, with more sharing of information and better communication.

Other organisations that have introduced the scheme have seen significantly reduced levels of low level crime and an increased number of joint police operations and activities.

Falmouth University will join Falmouth Town Council and Cornwall Council who are also both accredited with limited police powers through the scheme.

Rob Greensmith, head of security for FX Plus said: “We are looking forward to the closer working relationship with local police through this accreditation and are pleased that our highly trained security officers now have additional powers to further ensure the safety and security of campus users at both Penryn and Falmouth campuses.”

For more information on the scheme visit dc.police.uk/csas