#MakeADifference – Extra enforcement powers have been extended to 350 people from 40 organisations to crack down on ASB
Three and a half years ago, you asked us to crack down on anti-social behaviour.
We have reduced the number of recorded anti-social behaviour incidents by more than 8,000 (16 per cent). Highlights include:
• investment in council-led Community Safety Partnerships to tackle local problems
• extra enforcement powers extended to 350 people from 40 organisations to crack down on anti-social behaviour
• making more offenders answerable to their victims through the Restorative Justice programme
• providing the funding for more local policing, more community policing, Town Centre Teams and more rural policing
We are delivering against our priority in our Police & Crime Plan to crack down on anti-social behaviour.
Here, we speak to Spencer Clarke, Public Protection Manager from Chelmsford City Council, to find out how his team use accredited powers.
Spencer is accredited to work across Chelmsford city and Maldon district and is based in the same office – community hub – as his police counterparts.
He said: “Our community protection officers and community safety staff are accredited to work with Essex Police; that’s 50 extra pairs of hands supporting the police. We have done the four days of training, are familiar with current policing powers and are vetted which gives the police the confidence to share data and work jointly with us. The emergence of the Chelmsford community hub and Town Centre Teams means we are co-located in the same building, in some instances sat at the same desk, and so joined-up working is much more efficient.
“We have a number of forums, working with schools, registered social landlords and mental health practitioners, and so data-sharing is really important. We have monthly tasking meetings where the police tasking documents are shared with us – our intelligence is improved as a result and so is theirs.”
The accredited powers mean the council can handle “low level disturbances” such as noisy neighbour disputes instead of keeping the police busy with those kinds of incidents. They can issue fixed penalty notices and request personal information from perpetrators.
Spencer said: “We, as a council, can deal with anti-social behaviour that the police should not have to deal with, like noise nuisance. The police don’t deal with noise, we do.
“The biggest plus to accredited powers is that the police have the confidence to let us deal with these things.”
We are delivering against our priority in our Police & Crime Plan to crack down on anti-social behaviour. To find out more watch our film.
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