Police across North West to receive over £1 million each to help tackle anti-social behaviour
It's estimated the funding, hitting £66 million for England and Wales, will enable each force to deploy officers for up to 20,000 hours in “hotspot” areas each year
Every police force in England and Wales will receive at least £1 million to ramp up patrols to tackle violence and disorder, targeted in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour.
It is estimated that the funding, hitting £66 million for England and Wales, will enable each force to deploy officers for up to 20,000 hours in “hotspot” areas each year, helping drive down crime and boost public confidence in their local force. Across all 43 forces, this will support between 600,000 and 900,000 hours of hotspot patrols over the next year.
This approach has already been piloted in ten areas, with over 80,000 hours ofpatrols in the six months since it launched. This has led to nearly 600 arrests, close to 1,500 stop and searches and around 700 uses of Anti-Social Behaviour powers such as community protection notices and public protection orders. The hotspot approach has helped cut anti-social behaviour by over 40 per cent in Brunswick, in Lancashire according to data from the Police and Crime Commissioner. While in Essex, the police have reported that incidents of ASB in Southend have almost halved in the last 12 months.
The £66m of funding announced today will be targeted in areas where there is high prevalence of violence, anti-social behaviour, and illegal public drug consumption, which not only makes communities feel less safe but can fuel drug related violence.
In a further bid to tackle illicit drug crimes, the government has also set an ambitious new target to smash another 1,000 county lines by August. This will bring the total number county lines dismantled to over 3,000 since the Drug Strategy
At his first National Policing Board last month, the Home Secretary announced that tackling visible crime is one of his top priorities for police given the impact it has on public confidence.
Using trial funding Lancashire Police have delivered visible policing hours across the county to deal with ASB.
After six months of hotspot policing in Brunswick, Blackpool, reported ASB has decreased by 42% compared to the same period last year and public confidence in the police tackling ASB in the area has increased by 7.9%.
Work in Brunswick has included the creation of a monthly PACT (Police and Communities Together) meeting in Brunswick to allow residents and community members and local councillors to positively engage with local officers and relay any concerns that they have.