Please find below our response send to the media on the announcements made earlier today by the Home Secretary (Home Office Press Release pasted below). The measures announced are aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour.
Please also find a BBC news article on this story pasted below for your info.
Jan Berry, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, says:
“There’s nothing new in the Home Secretary’s announcement today. Police officers were targeting and disrupting those who cause anti-social behaviour for years until the presence and value of the bobby on the beat was no longer recognised. Frontline policing must be carried out by fully attested officers, and not by CSOs who, despite their best efforts, are not respected by the yob element.
“The Home Secretary is right that we should all follow the example set by Essex Police. But what Jacqui Smith must acknowledge is that the Chief Constable in Essex has been employing traditional policing methods, returning in excess of 200 police officers to the frontline rather than CSOs and pledging to recruit a further 600 police officers in the next two years. That is what has made the real difference and let’s hope the government and other chief officers finally sit up and take notice, as we cannot afford the luxury of increasing CSO numbers at the expense of reducing police officer numbers.”
Home Office Press Release:
A new Action Squad to help police and local agencies make full use of all the tools and powers available to tackle anti-social behaviour in every community, backed by 255,000 of new funding, was announced today in a major speech by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
Addressing an audience of police, anti-social behaviour coordinators and housing officers, the Home Secretary called on them to make use of all the tools and powers available to tackle the seven per cent of persistent troublemakers who cause the most problems. She praised a successful project run by Essex Police known as Operation Leopard that has seen a 100 per cent success rate in targeting the hardcore of repeat offenders.
New figures published today show that early interventions to tackle anti-social behaviour have increased significantly with local agencies getting involved earlier. This approach was set out in the recently published Youth Taskforce Action Plan which had a strong emphasis on early intervention. The figures show an increase of 258 per cent in the use of early ASB interventions, such as Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, Parenting Orders and Individual Support Orders, which effectively put a stop to problems before they get out of control and before Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) are required.
Other measures outlined by the Home Secretary include:
· Better joined up working by local authorities and statutory agencies to share information and work together to expose wider criminal behaviour of persistent anti-social behaviour offenders, including checks for benefit and council tax fraud, television licence evasion and vehicle insurance dodging.
· A joint review by the Home Office and the Department for Transport which will ask passengers, staff and operators what they think about current measures to address anti-social behaviour on public transport and determine whether more can be done.
· More action on poor parenting to intervene early at the first sign of problems to deliver the lasting changes that communities expect: courts will be required to consider making a Parenting Order when giving an ASBO to 10-17 year olds.
· New investment for the "Taking A Stand Awards", jointly supported by the Home Office and the Department for Children, Schools and Families, to celebrate and support members of the community, including young people, making a difference in their communities.
· Linked to the work of the Action Squad, anti-social behaviour practitioners in every area will be given definitive guidance about every tool at their disposal and how best to use them. Produced with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Youth Justice Board, the document is designed to help them make best use of existing tools and to support victims and witnesses.
In a further measure, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which is expected to receive Royal Assent today, will extend crackhouse closure order powers to cover more serious types of anti-social behaviour. It will also include a statutory requirement to review ASBOs on all under 18 year-olds after one year to ensure the ASBO is working and to pave the way for other interventions if necessary (currently there is no automatic review).
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said:
"People shouldn't have to put up with anti-social behaviour. We have put in place the teams, the powers and the know-how so that every community benefits from effective action that works. The Government is firmly on the side of communities where people have had enough and there will be no escape for persistent offenders. If you can't behave properly it won't just be the police watching you, but local councils, housing benefit officers, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and the TV Licensing authority.
"The figures I have published today are further evidence of the progress we have made. Where tough enforcement is needed it is happening, but we are getting in there early, nipping problems in the bud and putting a stop to them before they get of out control.
"I also want to make clear the importance of tackling the causes of bad behaviour like poor parenting and intervening early at the first sign of problems to deliver the lasting changes that communities expect."
This focus on early intervention in the Home Secretary's speech is in line with the approach outlined in the recent Youth Taskforce Action Plan which promoted strong sanctions where problems occur, but also non negotiable help to address the causes of problems and more effective prevention - in particular through the creation of Challenge and Support projects to respond to early warning signs of bad behaviour.
Children's, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said:
"All parts of the community - including young people who are themselves often the victims - want to see anti-social behaviour dealt with swiftly and effectively. Where young people are getting into trouble we need to tackle it - but also address the root causes of that bad behaviour so it is not repeated. So I want to see parenting orders and other measures being considered alongside anti-social behaviour orders where appropriate.
"Through the Youth Taskforce, led by Anne Weinstock, we will work closely with the Home Office and others to make sure communities, including young people, get the response they deserve to the thoughtless anti-social behaviour of a small minority."
Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said:
"It is important to address people's concerns about anti-social behaviour on public transport and to take action to stamp it out. By engaging the public on their views and working with transport operators and staff, our aim is to better understand what works well in practice and identify where potential improvements can be made."
Communities and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears said:
"The majority of decent people want to stand up to the minority of people who create noise, vandalism, drunkenness, and graffiti, and the Government will support them. Tackling anti-social behaviour is a crucial part of improving where we live, strengthening communities and helping people to feel more secure. We will continue to work with landlords and all our local partners to prevent problems getting out of hand, to enforce the law where we face challenges and to support communities throughout."
Harass young thugs, police urged
Jacqui Smith announced a new 'action squad' at a conference in central London
Youths who persistently misbehave and intimidate others in their communities should be "harassed themselves", Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said.
She said she wanted police to "turn the tables" on those who were violent and disruptive and who would not "live by the rules that the rest of us do".
This could include repeated home visits and checks to identify benefit fraud or council and road tax non-payment.
There could be "no excuse for inaction" while people lived in fear, she added.
Meanwhile, the number of anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) issued in England and Wales has fallen by a third, according to Home Office figures.
In all 2,706 orders were granted in 2006, the most recent period for which statistics are available, compared to 4,123 in 2005.
There were proportionally more breaches of Asbos in 2006, however: 49%, whereas the total for 2000 to 2005 was 47%.
'Early intervention'
Ms Smith, speaking in Westminster to an audience of professionals who deal with anti-social behaviour, announced £250,000 to fund an "action squad" which will encourage areas to better use such measures.
Home Office figures suggest that two-thirds of those involved in anti-social behaviour - including vandalism, threatening behaviour and street drinking - abandon it after their first warning.
But 7% of individuals continued misbehaving even after three encounters with the authorities - "still too many", Ms Smith said - and police should be paying particular attention to these repeat offenders.
She said she wanted to ensure "the tables were turned on offenders so that those who harass our communities are themselves harried and harassed".
Those who were being anti-social should also have their road tax, car insurance, TV licence and council tax payments checked, she added.
"That car of theirs: is the tax up to date? Is it insured? Let's find out.
"And have they got a TV licence for that plasma screen? As the advert says, it's all on the database.
"And as for the council tax, it shouldn't be difficult to check whether or not that's been paid. And what about benefit fraud? Can we run a check?
"If persistent offenders know that they'll be able to get away with it, then they will, by definition, persistently offend," Ms Smith said. "They will try it on again and again.
"We need to send them a strong message that we're not having it, there's no room for that sort of behaviour in our communities and that there are tough sanctions for it."
Police intelligence
She also called for greater help for parents "who struggle to keep their kids under control" and an automatic requirement for courts to consider granting a parenting order - aimed at parents who would not cooperate - whenever they issued an Asbo to a young person.
Ahead of her speech, Ms Smith had said the government wanted to ensure "that those people who want to live quietly and orderly in their communities, as the vast majority of us do, actually feel like they're in the majority".
"The people who are being harassed are those people who want to live quietly in their communities and their streets," she told the BBC News Channel.
The home secretary urged forces across the country to follow the example of Essex Police, who have mounted an operation to target those who repeatedly cause problems.
They used local intelligence to identify offenders, knocked on their doors and warned them their behaviour would not be tolerated.
They then photographed and questioned them and their friends over the next few days.
"Dramatic" results from the new approach included burglaries, criminal damage and car crime stopping altogether on one estate during the operation and staying at a low level afterwards.
"Those responsible for anti-social behaviour had no room for manoeuvre and nowhere to hide," Ms Smith said of the operation.
Asbo figures
Regarding the drop in the number of Asbos issued, the Home Office believes this could be down to the wider use of "early intervention" procedures by local authorities, police and magistrates.
These include acceptable behaviour contracts, parenting orders and individual support orders which aim to encourage better behaviour.
But Martin Narey, the chief executive of children's charity Barnardo's, said each Asbo issued was "a sign of failure".
The government needed to introduce m
