MANY political parties have talked tough on crime but that has often not been followed through in legislation once they are in Government.
Labour tried with Anti Social Behaviour Orders which, to some extent, have been effective in tackling yobbish behaviour. But the Government now seems set to take this a stage further by making it easier for communities to trigger a police response to problems in their areas. Under the proposed legislation police will have to take action to tackle nuisance behaviour if five people in different homes across the same neighbourhood complain or if one person complains on three separate occasions under a new ‘community trigger’ power. This is designed to end the terrible cases where there has been a distinct lack of police action which has ended in tragedy.
There is expected to be a new Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) to ban an individual from particular activities or places and civil Crime Prevention Injunctions (CPI) are also expected to be brought in to give agencies an immediate power to protect victims and communities by stopping bad behaviour before it escalates.
The lower standard of proof for civil orders such as the CPI means they can be put in place in days or even hours.
The plans will have their critics, but at least the Government is showing it means business tackling anti-social behaviour which continues to blight lives across the UK.
The big question is will the police and other agencies have the resources to carry them out effectively.
