Taking anti-social behaviour seriously? (From Daily Echo)

Taking anti-social behaviour seriously?

10:34am Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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There has been lots of press coverage today about the inspection reports on the police service across the country.

The headline though isn't about the best and worst police forces (whatever that really means) it's about how we respond to anti-social behaviour (ASB).

The statement in the press releases is that some police forces don’t take ASB sufficiently seriously.

It's unfortunate these releases have been made before the reports are published so we don’t know yet how Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary comes out of those reports.

When they are out, maybe this weekend, then you can find them on the website www.mypolice.org.uk, However, I know in Southampton we do take these issues seriously.

I know that some anti-social behaviour can be very damaging to neighbourhoods and especially to people who are more vulnerable.

That's why we invest time and effort in responding to incidents of ASB and it's a major focus for all our neighbourhood police officers and community support officers. But it's not just us.

We work with lots of other people on this, especially the City Council, but also local organisations including voluntary groups.

Only yesterday I chaired a meeting of senior people from agencies in the City at which we discussed new standards and commitments for how we will tackle ASB in Southampton.

This includes how we need to keep trying to identify and support people who are particularly vulnerable.

Last summer police across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ran a major campaign to tackle ASB. We did that with our partners and community groups such as Neighbourhood Watch.

It seemed to have a good effect on reducing incidents of ASB and increasing public confidence. We will do that again this summer and the more we can involve community groups and neighbourhoods in this the better.

So I wait to see what the Inspectors say about Hampshire Constabulary but whatever they say I will be leading Southampton police to continue to work with our City partners in doing more and better on tackling ASB.

In the meantime those people who thought I only ever talk about football wont be disappointed if I say that the work to identify the people who committed crimes at the recent derby game goes more public today with an appeal for help in putting names to faces.

We've asked for help with 10 people but there are others we have already identified - arrests to follow soon.