Anti-social behaviour

What is anti-social behaviour?

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) is serious or persistent behaviour that causes harassment, alarm or distress to you or your wider community. If you are a victim of ASB it can damage your quality of life. It can involve adults or young people.

ASB includes:

• riding mopeds, motorbikes, off road bikes (nuisance bikes) or scooters through estates and on paths
• rowdy or noisy behaviour including shouting and yelling close to people’s homes
• littering and fly-tipping rubbish
• groups of people hanging round the streets, paths and shops
• drinking alcohol, being drunk or rowdy in a public place
• playing loud music
• climbing on roofs or property that does not belong to you
• abandoning cars
• vandalism and graffiti
• use of an imitation weapon, like a BB gun, in a public place
• setting off fireworks late at night
• begging
• harassment.

ASB is not:

• ball games
• neighbour disputes
• domestic issues
• drug use
• violent behaviour.

Reporting ASB

There are many different types of ASB. Some matters will be dealt with by the police, but some are best reported to the council. 

• In an emergency/where there is immediate threat to life or property, call 999
  
  
• You can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or report online.

Council	Police
Flytipping/littering	Nuisance driving, including quad bikes, motorbikes and off road bikes
Dog fouling	Vandalism
Abandoned vehicles	Gangs and youths drinking in parks
Graffiti	Harassment or intimidation
Lost or stray dogs	Dangerous dogs
Noise nuisance	Misuse of fireworks
Parking issues	Begging
Found syringes	Dealing/taking drugs and drinking alcohol in the street

ASB involving council housing or tenants

Visit our housing webpages to see how we handle nuisance and ASB in relation to council housing

How we will respond

• In most cases, if you have given us your details, we will contact you within 24 hours to let you know we are looking into your issue.
  
  
• A report of ASB will not always mean a police officer or a council civic enforcement officer attends the incident. However, every report (including anonymous reports) is logged and investigated. Our teams use the information from every report to map ASB hotspots so that resources can be targeted. This could mean, for example, patrols are targeted in a certain area at a certain time of the week or cameras could be deployed to watch out for problems reported in a particular alleyway. 
  
  
• If you are the target of ASB or you are experiencing abuse/harassment we may need to speak to you before we can start an investigation. If you give us your details, we can meet you at your home, in our office or somewhere else if you would prefer.
  
  

What happens to offenders?

When we have spoken to an offender (or their parent if they are under 16) there are various things we can do:

• Acceptable behaviour agreement (ABA) - these agreements run for a specified time and can contain prohibitions. For example not to go onto a particular area; not to swear; not to associate with other offenders. Where appropriate, failure to follow the agreed terms can result in an anti-social behaviour injunction, community protection notice (CPN) or a criminal behaviour order (CBO).
  
  
• A court may give a civil injunction and the council can issue a CPN if we get reports of persistent anti-social behaviour.
  
  
• A CBO can be issued if someone is convicted of a crime linked to ASB.
  
  

If you are not happy with the outcome

• When a problem is not resolved you can activate a community trigger. The community trigger gives victims the opportunity to request a review of their case and bring agencies together to help find a solution. The trigger can not be used to complain about how the enforcement team have handled your issue. You can send complaints about council officials to corporate complaints