Train public in how to resolve anti-social behaviour, says RSA report
Members of the public should be given training by the police in how to address anti-social behaviour and deal with aggression and conflict, a report published by the RSA this month has argued.
The report, First aid approaches to managing anti-social behaviour, claimed that “with cuts to police budgets and limits to what authorities can achieve on their own, building people’s own capacity to manage anti-social behaviour might be more fruitful way forward”.
The author, Ben Rogers, also called on the new Police and Crime Commissioners, when elected, to champion the training of ordinary 'lay people' to provide their communities with relevant mediation or conflict resolution skills.
Rogers suggested that the ‘Woolwich model' – in which first aid training spread across the globe after courses were first established in Woolwich in 1878 – could be replicated.
The report from the RSA (the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) recommended that:
- Police officers or ‘lay trainers’ should provide training to local people about how to deal with low level anti-social behaviour.
- Training should also be given to frontline public servants “including park keepers, public transport workers, street cleaners, parking enforcement officers, caretakers, teachers and other school staff, social workers, community and youth workers and neighbourhood managers”.
- People who are not in public service "but present and potentially influential within their communities" could also benefit from training. They include shop-keepers, publicans and postal workers.
- Training should include (a) self-protection and restraint – what physical steps to take to minimise the risk to oneself; (b) how to ‘read’ a situation, to appraise when it is appropriate to walk on by, when it is safe to intervene, or when to call the police; and (c) skills in conflict resolution and mediation – “how to defuse and argument, forge an agreement and where appropriate elicit an apology”.
Ben Rogers said: "With the real prospect of traditional police patrolling being scaled back, now is surely the time to focus seriously on agreeing the core skills that active citizens need – individually or collectively – if they’re to step up to the mark.
“The coalition government has signalled its determination to encourage and support citizens to 'have a go' and intervene to stop criminal behaviour. But to do this – citizens need training – and the government needs a strategy if these emerging ideas are to be supported and developed."