Chief Inspector of Constabulary warns on "partnership issues" in handling of anti-social behaviour

There continue to be “partnership issues” in the handling of anti-social behaviour, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary said in a speech this week.

Denis O’Connor said: “People turn to the police as an agency of last resort on occasions. 50% of repeat victims do not know that agencies other than the police could help them.”

HMIC believes that while police forces have been improving in their handling of ASB, there is still a long way to go. The police do not attend 23% of ASB incidents, with almost all victims of such cases saying they were dissatisfied with the explanation given.

The Chief Inspector said the public struggle to see the difference between ASB and crime. “That’s not surprising – the boundaries between the two are blurred, even for police forces,” he suggested.

O’Connor highlighted how repeated ASB can blight people’s lives, particularly where a solution looks unachievable. “We believe this has repercussions beyond the individual and that ASB does significant harm to confidence in communities and fear of crime.”

He described the police database of information about incidents of ASB as inadequate and called for it to be improved as a matter of urgency.

Police systems vary in their ability to identify repeat victims and vulnerable victims, O'Connor added. “Over half cannot identify repeat victims via automatic IT systems and rely on manual trawls. Almost all forces are unable to automatically identify victims who have previously been deemed vulnerable.”

As a result, officers attending reports of ASB may not be aware of the previous history – something which likely to affect how the way the incident is dealt with.

Research by HMIC suggests that repeat victims are less likely to be confident in the police and in the system in general, and that as confidence reduces, reports of ASB also reduce.

The Chief Inspector said that over time this could mean police forces have less understanding of the issues in their area and lack the data to target key problems.

The research also found that one in five cases of repeat ASB, the victims classed themselves as disabled. “This may be a key issue and requires further work,” O’Connor said.

Certain myths have grown up about ASB, he added. Evidence shows that ASB matters as much, if not more, to young people as it does to older people as they use public spaces more.