Public want police commissioners to focus on antisocial behaviour

15 Nov 11
People want police and crime commissioners in England and Wales to prioritise tackling antisocial behaviour, according to a Local Government Association survey.
By Richard Johnstone | 15 November 2011

People want police and crime commissioners in England and Wales to prioritise tackling antisocial behaviour, according to a Local Government Association survey.

The elected commissioners will take office in a year, replacing police authorities. They will set priorities for the local police force, and have the power to hire and fire the chief constable.

Asked to list which crimes should be in the commissioners’ top three priorities, 71% of respondents to the LGA poll chose antisocial behaviour.

More than one in three people, 43%, also said that gun and knife crime should be one of the first concerns, while property crime was a priority for 36% of respondents.

Fewer than one-third (27%) wanted a focus on alcohol-related crime, just 10% thought vehicle theft was a priority. Only 9% of the 1,878 people polled thought counter-terrorism should be in the top three.

The commissioner posts were created by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act, which received royal assent on September 15. There will be one for each of the 41 police forces in England and Wales, excluding London.

Mehboob Khan, chair of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board, said that councillors ‘would not be surprised’ that antisocial behaviour was the public’s top priority.

He urged the new commissioners to work with local authorities to take advantage of their experience in dealing with antisocial behaviour.

‘It is vital that when elected police commissioners arrive in office next November that this expertise is not cast aside,’ Khan said.

‘This is not an issue that police can tackle alone. As core members of Community Safety Partnerships, councils have worked alongside health agencies, the fire service, schools, probation officers and the police to tackle the root causes of antisocial behaviour.’

The survey also revealed that fewer than one in four people (23%) knew that elections for the commissioners will take place one year from today.

Commenting on the survey, Mark Burns-Williamson, chair of the Association of Police Authorities, said: ‘The LGA’s poll is a useful contribution to raising awareness of the hitherto low profile prospect of elected police and crime commissioners, but it reveals little that’s new.

‘Antisocial behaviour and the most local, high-profile crimes and visible police work have always topped polls of public priorities for policing and it will no doubt ever be thus. These findings echo our concerns that the overwhelmingly locally focused mandate of PCCs has the potential to lead to the relative neglect of less visible and less local policing issues.’

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