The safety officers will patrol Rhyl

Rhyl West was named a policing priority area by the Home Office in January and is the first area within north Wales to receive the extra manpower.

The seven are not trained police officers but have the same powers as a traffic warden, and have been introduced to deter petty crime and anti-social behaviour.

They do not have the same powers of arrest as regular officers but police say they can provide a presence to deter crime.

Crime-cutting

Thirty of the officers were introduced by Gwent Police last year, funded by the Government.

Their duties include patrolling specifically targeted areas, including outside schools in the morning and afternoon.

There are already 1,350 such officers working in Wales and England, and the Government wants that to rise to 4,000 by 2005.

In a separate scheme, earlier this year eight community wardens swelled the ranks of a crime-cutting campaign in towns across Denbighshire.

The civilian wardens, financed by a �390,000 grant from the Welsh Assembly Government regeneration fund, are based in Ruthin, Prestatyn and Rhyl.