Andrew Dismore

 

What is ASB?

Since October 2013, the Met has classified antisocial behaviour into three main categories, in line with the National Standard for Incident Recording (NSIR):

 

• Personal antisocial behaviour – designed to identify antisocial behaviour incidents that the caller, call-handler or anyone else perceives as either deliberately targeted at an individual or group, or having an impact on an individual or group rather than the community at large.

 

• Nuisance antisocial behaviour – captures those incidents where an act, condition, thing or person causes trouble, annoyance, inconvenience, offence or suffering to the local community in general, rather than to individual victims

 

• Environmental antisocial behaviour – deals with the interface between people and places. It includes incidents where individuals and groups have an impact on their surroundings including natural, built and social environments. This category is about encouraging reasonable behaviour whilst managing and protecting the various environments so that people can enjoy their own private spaces as well as shared or public spaces.

 

Under these headings antisocial behaviour will fall into one of 13 different types:

 

1. Vehicle abandonment
2. Vehicle nuisance or inappropriate use
3. Rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour
4. Rowdy or nuisance neighbours
5. Littering or drugs paraphernalia
6. Animal problems
7. Trespassing
8. Nuisance calls
9. Street drinking
10. Prostitution related activity
11. Nuisance noise
12. Begging or vagrancy
13. Misuse of fireworks

 

The Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 introduced the following powers:

• Injunction – this can be used to stop someone from doing the behaviour that is causing distress. It can be applied for by a range of agencies, including the police, a local authority, a housing provider, Transport for London and the Environment Agency etc. An injunction is granted for a specific period of time. It will name the person responsible for supervising compliance with the injunction and can include a power of arrest if breached. It will require the person who is committing antisocial behaviour either to do a certain thing or prohibit from doing a certain thing with the aim of stopping the antisocial behaviour. This is a civil order and does not give the individual a criminal record.

 

• Criminal Behaviour Order – this is for people that have committed a crime and are engaged in antisocial behaviour. If breached, it can result in five years in prison.

 

• Dispersal powers – these allow the police to send people causing antisocial behaviour away from a public place for a specific period (up to a maximum of 48 hours) and remove items that they are using to cause the antisocial behaviour. The direction should be given in writing. If the police believes that the offender is under 16, the person can be removed to a place where the person lives or a place of safety.

 

• Community Protection Notice – designed to stop ongoing environmental antisocial behaviour. They can be used against individuals or organisations. A Community Protection Notice can be issued by the police, the relevant local authority, or a person designated by the relevant local authority. It can only be issued if the offender has been given a written warning that the notice will be issued and their behaviour doesn’t change. It is a criminal offence if they fail to comply with the notice.

 

• Public Spaces Protection Order – this order deals with a nuisance or problem in a public place. It is made by the local authority, in consultation with the chief officer of the police and local policing body. It prohibits specific things being done in the restricted area. Failure to comply with a Public Spaces Protection Order is an offence. In practice, the issue of PSPOs has often been contentious because local authorities have used it to ban things like rough sleeping, foul and abusive language and busking.

 

• Closure of premises – a closure notice can be issues if the police or local authority are satisfied that a particular premises, e.g. a pub or a house, has resulted in or is likely to result in disorder near those premises and the notice is necessary to prevent the nuisance or disorder from continuing, recurring or occurring.

 

The 2014 Act also includes measures to ensure local involvement and accountability:

 

• The Community Remedy allows victims to have a say in the punishment of the offender. The community remedy document is a list of actions which might be appropriate to be carried out by a person who has engaged in antisocial behaviour or has committed an offence and is to be dealt with without court proceedings. It can include, for example: mediation, an Acceptable Behaviour Contract or reparation to the community etc.

 

• ASB Case Review (Community Trigger) allows victims to activate a multi-agency review of their case. It is also known as the antisocial behaviour case review. The relevant local government bodies in the area must carry out an antisocial behaviour case review if a person activates the Community Trigger (makes an application for a review) and the relevant bodies decide that the threshold for a review is met. Each local authority sets its own threshold but the most common threshold is likely to be if someone has complained three times in a six month period and feels that nothing has been done.

 

 

There is also a specific law for landlords.

Recovery of Possession of Dwelling Houses allows landlords to evict certain antisocial tenants, as long as the landlord has compiled with its legal obligations.