#MakeADifference – Crack down on anti-social behaviour

“Cracking down on anti-social behaviour is a priority which sits firmly at the heart of our Police and Crime Plan. Our objective is to keep our communities safe across the whole of Essex, reducing the disruption and distress anti-social behaviour causes people.

“The number of anti-social behaviour (ASB) incidents has continued to fall from 49,691 in the previous year to 46,718 this year, a reduction of six per cent. At the same time, we have seen the public’s confidence that the police response to ASB is improving.

“ASB is defined as any behaviour where the victim is suffering harassment, alarm, distress, nuisance or annoyance. This covers a breadth of behaviour – some criminal and some not. Given this wide definition, the approach to tackling ASB is to focus on developing effective partnership working which supports effective problem solving. In short, this means stopping ASB from happening in the first place.

“Effective data sharing and joint working between Essex Police, councils and housing providers has been shown to foster a stronger problem solving approach, in turn reducing the number of incidents of anti-social behaviour. Across our county, there are some excellent examples of where this type of partnership work is happening.

“In Southend, the Community Policing Team are co-located with South Essex Homes in its Community Hub. This means all agencies can be involved in discussing problems and managing investigations and incidents together.

“Chelmsford was the first area to develop a formal information sharing agreement and this is now a model that is being replicated across the county. In Braintree, fortnightly hub meetings take place between the police, Braintree Council, housing providers, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and other relevant agencies. This has helped partners focus on proactive responses to issues rather than only dealing with those issues that require an urgent response. These local arrangements are happening in a variety of ways across the county, giving local people a say in identifying their priorities and bring all relevant organisations together to achieve them for their communities.

Last November, Essex Police and its partners launched the 2018-2021 Crime Prevention Strategy, read more here,  which sets out a clear statement of intent on how to prevent crime happening. The strategy aims to tackle the complex causes of crime and community issues, which can only be solved by partners working together.

“There are a range of other ways that we are working together to crack down on anti-social behaviour. Over the next fortnight will be focusing on some of our successful areas. Showing how we are:

• Investing in Council led Community Safety Partnerships to tackle local problems
• Extending extra enforcement powers to 350 people from 40 organisations to crack down on ASB
• Making more offenders answerable to their victims through our Restorative Justice programme
• Providing the funding for more local policing, more community policing, town centre teams and more rural policing

“Keep an eye on our social media channels, website and newsletter to find out more about how we are delivering against our priority in our Police & Crime Plan to crack down on anti-social behaviour.

“We are not complacent and there is still more to be done but you can see how we are able to #MakeADifference. Now I’d ask you to #MakeADifference and tell us what you want from your police force for the next four years so we can shape our next Police and Crime Plan.”

“You can fill in our survey here: https://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/make-a-difference/

“Hard copies of the survey are also available in local libraries or you can call the office on 01245 291600 to request one.”

 

Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex