Legal Advice - Anti-Social Behaviour

I have called the police about some youngsters causing a nuisance. Will the police attend and arrest them?

Anti-social behaviour is one of the major causes of problems in local communities and it accounts for a huge number of calls made to the police.

In most cases, our response will usually not be to attend following a receipt of such a complaint. We understand this may frustrate you, but our research has shown that upon our arrival the anti-social behaviour has already stopped.

So what will we do? Firstly, the law states that an officer actually has to WITNESS anti-social behaviour and cannot simply rely on the word of a third party. Without this safeguard misleading or false allegations could be made against someone else. Therefore, police action needs to be appropriately timed and positive. Therefore, to gather evidence and deal with the problem, the local beat officer will be informed of reports of anti-social behaviour for them to tackle the problem 'head on'.

Where appropriate, the police will also involve other agencies eg, housing and transport, to help eradicate the problem.

This policy is adopted for most cases of anti-social behaviour, eg, playing football in the street. However, it does not mean an officer will not attend where it is known that offences are or have been committed, for example, criminal damage.