Officers support national anti-social behaviour week with positive outcomes

We are targeting anti-social behaviour (ASB) this week as part of a national campaign to #MakeCommunitiesSafer, with officers reflecting on recent positive outcomes for our communities as we continue to address issues that matter most to them.

Anti-social behaviour awareness week 2024, led by the organisation Resolve, runs from 18 to 24 November and sees officers increase their ongoing efforts to tackle anti-social behaviour in targeted activity across the county.

So far, officers from local policing teams have identified individuals highlighted by local residents as ASB offenders and worked hard to achieve positive justice outcomes.

In Codsall, we received multiple calls about one individual who was involved in reports of ASB, harassment and domestic violence. The local policing team worked with partners to issue a community protection notice then a fixed-penalty notice over his behaviour before he was handed a 14-week custodial sentence for his offending. Officers also helped and supported the victim to report the offenders’ behaviour and assisted them in their liaison with the local authority to find alternative accommodation.

The same team acted to tackle nuisance behaviour on motorised bicycles, when they received five reports in the space of a week. Officers worked to identify the riders, gave verbal warnings before issuing section 59 notices to stop their activities. No further reports have been received since.

In Stoke-on-Trent, officers have taken action and issued a number of closure orders on problematic properties linked to ASB.

One of the properties was the subject of several complaints daily, particularly relating to drug-taking in the area. Officers worked with the local authority to obtain a three-month closure order and contacted the property landlord who has since cleared out the property and cleaned up the mess.

In Meir, a property had seen all its windows smashed with the occupants regularly reported to us for fighting and drug-taking as well as approaching older people in the community and asking for money.

Officers worked with the local authority’s ASB team along with support organisations to try and help the tenants who were not compiling to the landlord’s eviction notice. We were able to apply for a closure order through the court and the tenants were later arrested, charged and remanded over a number of burglary and theft offences in the area.

In Birches Head, Stoke-on-Trent North local policing team sprang into action to help the local community who had been blighted by a nightmare tenant and his associates who had caused around £50,000 of damage to a property. We had received 60 total 999 calls relating to this individual and officers worked round-the-clock to help the landlord to evict him.

A similar outcome was achieved in Tamworth, after a man had been verbally abusive to others in the area on multiple occasions, despite being issued with several warnings and an injunction following an application by the Borough Council.

We were able to present evidence to the court showing five breaches of the injunction and the man was handed a 12-month prison sentence for his behaviour and an extension to the injunction which will now last until May 2025.

Commenting on the awareness week, Chief Inspector Laura Davies, local policing City Commander and ASB lead for the force, said: “We are dedicated to tackling ASB all year round, however, this week provides us with an opportunity to highlight some of the fantastic work our local policing teams have been doing with partners to target the criminality which affects our communities the most.

“I would encourage anyone who has concerns about ASB to report it to us as soon as possible.

“We know the impact that this type of crime has on your area, your community and your mental health, that is why we’re determined to tackle it as much as we can to continue to make Staffordshire a safer place to live, work and visit.”

To find out more about the national campaign, visit: Join us for anti-social behaviour awareness week 2024 | College of Policing.

For further details on Resolve, see: Home - Resolve - Antisocial Behaviour.

To report ASB in your area, visit: Contact us | Staffordshire Police.