Police "failing" victims of antisocial behaviour

Published 11th Mar 2010

Police forces must learn to take antisocial behaviour seriously and recognise the toll it takes on communities, the head of the police inspectorate said on Thursday.

Chief Inspector of Constabulary Denis O'Connor criticised forces' "inadequate" recording of information about harassment, vandalism, and verbal abuse.

He was speaking at the launch of "My Police," a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) into all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the high-profile case of Fiona Pilkington has put the police's attitude to yobbery under the microscope.

Pilkington killed herself and her severely disabled 18-year-old daughter Francecca in 2007 after a campaign of intimidation and violence by youths in Leicestershire that lasted nearly 10 years.

Thursday's report said officers failed to respond to 23 percent of reported incidents of antisocial behaviour. O'Connor said urgent action was necessary to help restore public confidence.

"Our initial work suggests that police systems vary in their ability to identify repeat victims and vulnerable victims. Almost all forces are unable to automatically identify victims who have previously been deemed vulnerable," he said.

O'Connor said the disillusionment of repeat victims had led to an under-reporting of incidents. "As confidence reduces, reports of antisocial behaviour also reduce," he said.

He wanted to explode the "myth" that the fear of antisocial behaviour was confined to older people.

"Evidence shows that antisocial behaviour matters as much, if not more, to young people as it does to older people because they use public spaces more," he said.

Responding to the report, Assistant Chief Constable Simon Edens, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said information sharing between the police and other agencies would help forces address the problem.

"As policing prepares for straitened financial times, difficult decisions on priorities lie ahead and it is vital that others, including councils, housing providers and parents continue to work closely with us if we are to improve our response to the public," he said.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said the report was an indictment of the government's policing policies.

"This report is absolutely right in saying that it is not getting the attention it needs but that won't change unless we get rid of Labour's culture of bureaucracy of policing and get police officers back to policing our streets," he said.

The report found there were 3.6 million instances of antisocial behaviour reported in 2008/09. HMIC spoke to 765 people across all police forces who had reported suffering repeated antisocial behaviour.

Source: ' Reuters '

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