Police in Hampshire will once again roll out a summer-long crackdown on anti-social behaviour across the county.
Last year’s ASB campaign saw a 17per cent reduction in the number of incidents and officers are hoping for similar success in 2010. Longer evenings and school holidays are credited with the rise in incidents during June, July and August and residents are being encouraged to come forward with plans to tackle issues in their community.
Assistant Chief Constable at Hampshire Constabulary, Laura Nicholson said: “We want to hear from local residents about what they want to see police officers doing in their community and what they feel the main issues regarding ASB are. During the next three months, when historically we see a rise in reported incidents of anti-social behaviour, I am putting more of my team out on patrols in known hotspots across Hampshire. We know that reducing anti-social behaviour is the key to making our residents feel safer and more confident and we continue to crackdown on our offenders and provide more support for our victims.”
As part of the campaign, residents are being asked to send in videos, photos, letters and more highlighting problem areas in their community.
Phil Stoneman, chair of Hampshire’s Community Safety Practitioner’s group added: “We know that anti-social behaviour can have a massive impact on a person’s quality of life and on the wider community. To tackle the issues in an effective way it’s vital that organisations, including the police, local authorities and housing associations work together to reduce the number of incidents that we deal with on a daily basis. Importantly, we also need to identify and tackle the causes of ASH, some of which are straightforward and can be relatively easy to solve, whereas others are deep-rooted requiring longer term and more complex solutions.
“Last year’s summer anti-social behaviour campaign saw a reduction in ASB incidents of 17 per cent.” Residents wishing to report an incident can do so by calling 101.
For information on the campaign visit www.hampshire.police.uk
