Agenda item

Safer York Partnership Priority: Tackling High Risk Antisocial Behaviour

This report provides an overview of how Antisocial behaviour (ASB) is tackled in the city, focusing on the work of the joint North Yorkshire Police/City of York Council Community Safety Hub and the plans to develop that approach based on learning from delivery during the challenges of COVID.

 

Minutes:

This report provided an overview of how Antisocial behaviour (ASB) was being tackled in the city, and focused on the work of the joint North Yorkshire Police/City of York Council Community Safety Hub and the plans to develop that approach based on learning from delivery during the challenges of COVID. The Head of Community Safety, Youth Justice Practice Manager and Superintendent Mark Khan of North Yorkshire Police were in attendance to present the report and respond to questions.

 

The committee discussed the work of the joint North Yorkshire Police and City of York Council Community Safety Hub and the plans to develop its work based on the learning gained from the challenges of delivery experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Officers outlined the current structure of the Community Safety Hub and its current approach to tacking anti-social behaviour, which aimed to prevent duplication of work and improve co-ordination by sharing information and intelligence between North Yorkshire Police and City of York on anti-social behaviour and environmental crime.

 

The Covid-19 had prompted several changes in the work of the Community Safety Hub which were being retained, for example virtual meetings, which allowed multi-agency meetings to be organised more easily and frequently and a stronger focus on early intervention and prevention of anti-social behaviour than enforcement due to the courts being closed during lockdowns which made prosecution impossible.

 

Policing UK and North Yorkshire Police (NYP) were moving to a public health approach to policing, which focused less on ‘tertiary’ or reactive action e.g. responding to calls/crisis management work which the police had traditionally undertaken and more on community level prevention of antisocial behaviour. A long term ambition for NYP was also to move to place-based working, with problem-solving training provided to staff and officers, with the Community Safety Hub being the driver of targeted activity in York.

 

Members discussed with officers the work of the Youth Justice Service and which type of interventions were usually most successful in helping with addressing anti-social behaviour and other issues around young people. Examples included working with the Victim Liaison Officer and communities, work with the NYP to help divert young people away from anti-social behaviour and towards other activities such as sporting. Empowering Youth was discussed, which gave young people the opportunity to discuss the issues facing their communities and contribute towards solutions. Referrals to the Youth Justice Service usually came directly from local police, schools or the courts.

 

The difficulties of using social media as a means of collecting information on social media were discussed, and NYP encouraged people to report any issues through official channels rather than via social media which cannot be thoroughly monitored. Members raised concerns that trends towards virtual meetings would conflict with place-based working, however NYP believed that the two could work together, provided that there is always some level of physical presence.

 

The roles of PCSOs was discussed, and members requested that they remain posted to an area for as long as possible to enable the building of positive relations with the community – it was also requested that when police personnel are deployed to an area on a regular basis, they contact local councillors to increase co-operation.

 

It was suggested that future statistics presented to the committee show how many individuals are involved in anti-social behaviour, rather than solely the number of offences, as well as a comparison of current figures with pre-Covid levels of offences. Officers commented that an impact of Covid on anti-social behaviour had been significant increases in such activity as lockdowns ended as well as increased alcohol abuse.

 

Resolved:

i.             That the views of members on the delivery of work to tackle antisocial behaviour and how it is reflected in the refresh of this priority within the Community Safety Strategy be noted.

 

Reason: To involve members in the development of service delivery in tackling antisocial behaviour in York.

 

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

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