'Urgent action needed' to understand anti-social behaviour toll

Urgent action must be taken by senior officers to improve understanding of the toll anti-social behaviour is taking on their communities, the head of the police inspectorate said today.

Chief Inspector of Constabulary Denis O'Connor said the recording of information about harassment, criminal damage and verbal abuse is "inadequate" and must be improved immediately.

He said more than half of the 43 forces in England and Wales cannot automatically identify repeat victims, leaving officers in ignorance of some of the most vulnerable people who need help.

A snapshot survey by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found officers did not turn up to almost one in four (23%) anti-social behaviour complaints and as a result almost all those victims were unhappy with police.

Researchers also found that one in five repeat victims classed themselves as disabled in some way.

Around 3.6 million reports of antisocial behaviour were made in 2008-9, compared with 4.6 million crimes, but officials believe the true figure could be twice as high.

Speaking in central London today, Mr O'Connor said police may need to radically rethink their approach because most victims do not distinguish between anti-social behaviour and crime.

He said people wanted their home to be a safe place, adding: "Even if it is not brilliant, it is their home. If they cannot go home in peace imagine how unnerving it is."

The death of Fiona Pilkington threw the spotlight on shortcomings in how police and other authorities respond to cases where vulnerable people are constantly tormented by yobs.

She committed suicide and killed her severely disabled 18-year-old daughter Francecca after gangs kept them prisoners in their home in Barwell, near Hinckley in Leicestershire.

Mr O'Connor said anti-social behaviour is a deeply-troubling issue for the public but there is no agreed framework among police forces on how best to record and deal with it.

He said: "An awful lot of police forces have real problems. There is a lot of it, a lot of it is under-reported and there is a problem with nailing the intelligence around it."

Officials at HMIC have begun further research to draw up a framework to assess the performance of police forces in tackling anti-social behaviour.

West Mercia Assistant Chief Constable Simon Edens, the national lead on tackling anti-social behaviour, said officers must work closely with councils, housing providers and parents.

He said: "Chief officers recognise that what people want most for the community in which they live is to feel safe in the homes they live in, and on the streets they walk."

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: "As I made clear in my speech earlier this week, we expect all local agencies to prioritise anti-social behaviour.

"Anti-social behaviour is to be tackled not tolerated - police and other agencies must protect victims and punish perpetrators."

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "Anti-social behaviour is undoubtedly the biggest law and order problem facing most communities across our country.

"This report is absolutely right in saying that it is not getting the attention it needs, but that won't change unless we get rid of Labour's culture of bureaucracy of policing and get police officers back to policing our streets instead of filling in endless forms."

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said forces face "hard choices" in prioritising their time and need to work better on securing responses to reports of anti-social behaviour from other agencies such as local councils and housing associations.

"There are certainly cases where we could, without question, do better, and every chief constable in the country will be talking about this today to their communities," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"But you can't actually say we are only talking about anti-social behaviour because the police can't just focus on one thing, we have to deal with the whole complexity of policing from anti-social behaviour ... right through to organised crime and international terrorism because that's what keeps communities safe in the totalities.

"We have to make hard choices."

In some cases the police alone could only offer a "sticking plaster", he said - pointing to the involvement of local politicians in France and of parents in Germany.

"What is absolutely clear is that the citizen deserves a response from the public. The more organised we are, the more appropriate the response will be," he said.