A new "community trigger" is to be introduced to replace the discredited ASBO scheme, and make it quicker and easier for police to investigate complaints of anti-social behaviour.
Under the new plan, forces will be required to investigate any single incident reported by at least five people, or any three complaints made by the same person. Speaking in Manchester, which will be one of three pilot areas for the scheme, the Home Secretary Theresa May said the measures, "will give people the confidence that when they call the police something will be done".
The Home Secretary's reforms will replace 19 measures with six powers that target people, places and police powers. A new Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) will be used to ban individuals from activities or places, while civil Crime Prevention Injunctions (CPI) will be introduced to give agencies immediate power to protect victims and communities by stopping bad behaviour before it escalates.
The package of measures also includes plans to impose on-the-spot penalties of up to £100 for householders who regularly dump rubbish in their gardens.
Reacting to the new community triggers, Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, said, "The Government's new measures are a weaker rebrand, making it harder for the police, councils and housing associations to take tough enforcement action when people's lives are made a misery by anti-social bullies or nuisance neighbours. It should not take three separate complaints, or five different households complaining before getting a response.
She continued, "Breaching anti-social behaviour orders will no longer be a criminal offence. And housing associations have warned that rebranding injunctions will make it harder to deal with neighbours from hell because it rips up years of case law and experience. Ministers' grand promises on anti-social behaviour are no use if they are taking away the police to do the job and cutting back the effective powers they need."
For more information, see the:
