Preventative community projects have included:
- Working with the Brathay Trust to engage 13-16 year olds on the periphery of crime and ASB through activities, including an annual three-night outdoor activity centre visit.
- ‘Future Pathways’ – a nine-session programme which develops employability and life skills in secondary school pupils.
- Working with the Community Alcohol Partnership to tackle underage street drinking and alcohol-related ASB.
The team also reacts to clusters of ASB. For example, when escalating incidents linked to drink and drug use in Whitehaven town centre were impacting on local businesses and quality of life for residents, the police, council and multiple housing associations put a response in place. They used all the tools available including housing injunctions and evictions, a Public Spaces Protection Order banning street drinking, police patrol activity, warrants executed, Criminal Behaviour Orders imposed and leaflets delivered to every household.
There were some early interventions and ‘quick fixes’ which resulted in improvements, but it took 18 months to put all of the measures in place. As a result, the number of ASB incidents reduced to virtually zero. During this operation the neighbourhood policing team gathered 111 pieces of actionable intelligence which led to 35 arrests for various offences. They conducted 53 stop searches, 17 warrants and seized 16 vehicles. Eleven civil injunctions were issued by the courts following applications by the largest housing provider.
Neighbourhood Policing Sergeant David Macdonald said: “Tackling ASB in Whitehaven town centre was a big success story for the Hub approach. We hit every aspect of ASB and low-level criminality and virtually eradicated it from the area. Our approach involved each agency using their own powers but as part of an overall coordinated plan, being mindful of what everyone else was doing, making those individual efforts much more effective.”
Louise Coid, Copeland Borough Council’s Community Safety Officer, manages the Hub’s day-to-day activity. One of the key success factors was the solid foundation of partnership working already in place here, she said. “If you don’t have real buy-in from the major players then it’s a big challenge to get everyone on board. Everyone has to see the benefits of their involvement.”
Monthly partners’ meetings are used to agree priority locations, incidents, issues and funding applications that address the partnership’s priorities. This ensures that the setting of priorities addresses those issues most important to the community. “While we do have these formal monthly meetings, communication takes place in office conversations all the time, reflecting the fact that ASB is a daily issue – not a monthly issue.”
Having a central Hub has worked well in terms of sharing information and focusing the strengths of different agencies on particular issues. This ensures that interventions are appropriate, holistic, early, efficient and effective.