TEENAGERS who helped a police review of community priorities were thanked by being taken for a spin - literally - round force headquarters.

The youngsters, aged from 12 to 15, visited Durham Police's Aykley Heads complex, in Durham, yesterday.

It was a reward for taking part in a youth event which helped force managers to gauge local teenagers' opinions on a range of issues, in the hope that it may help officers to respond better to issues involving young people.

Forty young people from across County Durham and Darlington attended the youth event, at New College Durham, earlier this year.

Kathryn Larkin-Bramley, Durham Police Authority's lead member for children and young people, said the event was a useful means of filtering opinion from that age group.

She said: "While there are a number of ways in which we engage with adults to find out how we can better serve the people in our communities, we identified a gap as far as those aged under 20 are concerned.

"The event in February gave us the opportunity to mix fairly informally with ordinary young people, and find out whether they feel safe in their communities.

"They were asked to suggest in what ways they think the police can improve the situation, and do things better, when dealing with them and their peers."

As part of a competition, those who took part in the event were asked to submit an evaluation form, and draw a picture, so organisers could assess the benefit of the event.

The five youngsters providing the best entries were invited to force headquarters yesterday.

Their tour included the chance to take ride in a car on the skid pan, and run the rule over the variety of vehicles in the force fleet.

In addition the young visitors were shown a presentation by officers from the motorcycle section.

Officers from the accident unit also spoke to them about digital photography, and they were given a camera to record their day.