Wimborne: Government To Introduce New Measures To Tackle Anti-Social Behaviour

After reporting yesterday about the acts of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and vandalism committed in Leigh Gardens on the last weekend in April it was with interest I read about the government's proposal to force the police to respond to ASB faster.

With up to 6,500 separate incidents of ASB recorded everyday in England and Wales last year new measures are needed to help end the horror of victims being ignored despite making multiple complaints to the authorities. The proposed new rules would see police forced to act if five people in different homes complain, or if one person complains on three separate occasions. A new criminal behaviour order will ban an individual from particular acts or places and Civil Crime Prevention Injunctions will give the police the ability to stop ASB within days or even hours.

It seems many of these proposed new measures are really designed to curb persistent offenders rather than one off incidents like the one in Leigh Gardens. So what protection will people like Mr Gibson receive when around fifty thugs decide to jump up and down on his car?

Should there be a threshold where the police are forced to act, or should they treat every call as important and act immediately? If that is the case it's going to be easier said than done with the reductions in manpower thanks to budget cuts.