Task force steps up fight against anti-social behaviour across Nottinghamshire

Partners are joining forces to work more efficiently and effectively in tackling issues including street drinking and drug use, aggressive begging, kerb crawling, noise nuisance, harassment, graffiti, vandalism and littering.

The Nottinghamshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is spearheading the task force to lead collaboration between Nottinghamshire Police and each of the city, district and borough councils.

The aim is to ensure ASB is considered strategically across Nottinghamshire, that issues are properly prioritised based on their impact and that responses are evidence-led and informed by “what works”.

There will also be a focus in prevention, early intervention and identifying the drivers of ASB as well as a commitment to partnership working, information sharing and ensuring that agencies have a clear understanding of their respective roles and responsibilities.

Partners will also ensure residents have easy access to information about what constitutes ASB and how to report it.

A total of 30.2 pe rcent of respondents to the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime survey said they had experienced ASB in the 12 months to March 2023. This was up from 27.9% during the pre-Covid baseline year of 2019-20.

ASB is any conduct that causes harassment, alarm or distress or could cause nuisance or annoyance.

Caroline Henry, commissioner, said: “ASB is one of the issues I get asked about most, because it can have a huge impact on people’s quality of life and lead to a great deal of frustration.

“The new ASB task force aims to ensure we respond swiftly, visibly and effectively to reports and ensure victims are given the support they need.

“No-one should have to suffer in silence from the impact of ASB. Help is available from a range of partners.

“All the agencies involved in the task force are committed to tackling this issue and I urge people to report ASB whenever they need help.

“Every time people report an issue, it helps build up a clearer picture of the types of issues affecting local communities and where incidents are concentrated. This helps to ensure resources can be targeted in the most efficient and effective way to support residents in making their neighbourhood safer and more enjoyable places to live, work and visit.”

The task force will monitor ASB statistics and trends across the county, so the respective agencies can respond to issues of greatest community concern and learn “best practice” from each other.

The plans also include referring victims of crime-related ASB for support through the Nottinghamshire Victim CARE as standard procedure, from September. This service gives practical and emotional support to anyone negatively affected by crime and ASB.

Chief Inspector Chris Pearson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We thoroughly appreciate the damage ASB in all its different forms can cause to communities.

“Shouting abuse, vandalising property, street drinking, car cruising, and off-road bike riding are just some examples of ASB reports we and other police forces receive.

“This type of nuisance behaviour can make people’s lives an absolute misery, which is clearly not okay.

“It is precisely for this reason why tackling ASB is among the key policing priorities for our neighbourhood policing teams, as people have told us that us focusing on this issue is important to them.

“We take all reports of this nature extremely seriously and carry out regular visible patrols at hotspot locations across all our policing areas in a bid to deter people from behaving in this manner.

“Our officers also regularly visit schools to carry out positive engagement work with children to help them properly understand the impact this behaviour can have on people’s lives.

“ASB can also be a precursor to people committing future crime, so intervening at this early stage is particularly important in helping to quickly nip this behaviour in the bud and make the community a better place to live.”

The task force will build on the existing partnership work to tackle ASB across Nottinghamshire, which includes Safer Streets project work.

This comes after the Nottinghamshire OPCC secured £3 million of Home Office funding for projects to make public spaces safer, including tackling ASB.

Some of the projects have included employing street wardens, installing CCTV and lighting and making environmental improvements.

Other recent examples of a multi-agency crackdown on ASB include a six-month campaign on Mansfield’s Oak Tree estate, which saw bicycle thefts and arsons fall by 96 per cent and motorbike thefts reduce by 80 per cent.

This was funded by the OPCC’s Safer4All fund, with partnership delivery by Mansfield Council, Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service.