Anti-social behaviour Awareness Week: Partnership Day
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Northamptonshire Police is taking part in national Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Awareness Week 2024.
Each day has a theme, with today’s being all about the partnership working involved in resolving and preventing ASB.
The Force works with a range of partners on ASB issues – no single organisation can tackle ASB on its own, and some complex cases require a much broader approach to resolve.
Some issues may not be police matters, but we still want to help resolve them early to prevent any escalation to criminal behaviour, and to improve quality of life for affected people and communities.
A key way police forces work with partners on ASB is through Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs).
These were introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act 1988 to bring partners together to formulate and deliver strategies to tackle crime, disorder and ASB in their communities.
CSPs are made up of the police, fire service, local authorities, health partners and the Probation Service.
How all these partners come together is a bit like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Each partner brings their own specialist services to address an individual ASB issue, each providing a piece of the jigsaw.
These different pieces all then fit together to create a full picture and allow a greater understanding of the matter.
In Northamptonshire, both the North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire councils chair monthly review meetings where partners are invited to share information on and discuss solutions, in a confidential setting, to some of the most high-risk ASB issues that have been reported.
An example of who might be involved in a single case could be a housing provider, local council ASB team, environmental health, adult and/or child safeguarding team, victim support group and the local policing team.
Officers would also liaise with the Force’s hate crime officer, community engagement team or an ASB supervisor, to ensure all the expertise they might need would be on hand.
By sharing information and expertise, partners can ensure help and support is offered to victims, and also to those responsible for ASB, with the aim of resolving the issue and preventing similar problems in the future.
Dealing with reports on a case-by-case basis enables partners to deliver a tailored problem-solving response that best fits all the different elements within an ASB issue, to effectively deal with it.