Police to get new powers to tackle anti-social behaviour
Getty ImagesThe government said “hooligans who cause serious damage to local communities” could face up to two years in prison under plans to crack down on anti-social behaviour.
Police and councils in England and Wales will be able to apply for new “respect orders” banning repeat offenders from drinking in city centers or in public places such as streets and parks.
Breaching an order constitutes a criminal offense punishable by up to two years in prison, and the court can also impose an unlimited fine or order offenders to perform unpaid work.
However, civil liberties campaigners fear the powers could be abused by police and criminalize homelessness.
Police will also be given stronger powers to tackle the “scourge of off-road bikes in parks and dangerous e-scooters, street racing and cruising on pavements”, the Home Office said.
Under the scheme, police will no longer need to issue warnings before seizing vehicles involved in anti-social behaviour.
The new respect orders promised in Labour’s general election manifesto will be introduced as part of the upcoming Crime and Policing Bill.
The government said they would partially replace existing civil injunction powers and deal with breaches with “wider penalties”.
Offenders may also be forced to attend drug or alcohol treatment services, or anger management classes to address the underlying causes of their behavior.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said respect orders were a “simple but effective” way of tackling anti-social behavior that “damages communities”.
He told BBC Radio Bristol the measure had “teeth” as people who breached the order could be arrested.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the orders were “effectively a modernized version of Asbo” – the anti-social behavior order introduced by Tony Blair’s new Labor government in the 1990s Launched for the first time.
Asked about the differences between the two, she told BBC Breakfast that police would be given stronger powers to tackle anti-social behavior and officers would be able to arrest repeat offenders.
She added that respect orders did not apply to children because “it has not worked” in the past.
In England and Wales, the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition government repealed the Asbos Act, which then-Home Secretary Theresa May believed was too bureaucratic and criminalized young people. , but did not reform the criminals.
However, they are still used in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Cooper has also been questioned about whether police have the time and resources to effectively tackle anti-social behavior, with more than a million incidents recorded last year.
She said the government had pledged to deploy an additional 13,000 community police officers and community support officers to focus on the “most offending criminals”.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said more community police were needed to prevent anti-social behavior in the first place.
“I’m afraid I’m quite concerned that this is more of a press release than real action to help our communities and people who are suffering from anti-social behaviour,” he said.
Akiko Hart, director of the Freedom Movement, said the new respect orders were “totally unnecessary” and were “virtually identical” to existing powers.
“This expansion is particularly concerning given that we know from experience that these powers are often abused by the police, particularly to criminalize homeless people,” she said.
“It’s important that communities do feel safe, but dragging more people into the criminal justice system is not the answer.”
