Operation Respect tackles nuisance neighbours

This project was shortlisted for the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group’s ‘Delivering results’ Awards 2009. The Group award is sponsored by ReACT.

North Tyneside Council’s Safer Estates Team have conducted a series of high profile operations branded ‘Operation Respect’ in partnership with Northumbria Police to target people known to be involved in crime and anti-social behaviour in various areas of the district.

Operation Respect

“To reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and residents’ fear of these” is one of the objectives of North Tyneside’s Sustainable Community Strategy 2007-2010, and the council’s Public Service Agreement (PSA) for 2008-11 includes the following priority action:

Tackle the crime, disorder and antisocial behaviour issues of greatest importance in each locality, increasing public confidence in the local agencies involved in dealing with these issues.

To address these priorities, North Tyneside’s Safer Estates Team in partnership with Northumbria Police developed the idea of Operation Respect.

The joint operations are designed to help tackle crime and disorder in North Tyneside by targeting offenders as well as dealing effectively with problems of nuisance neighbours who cause disruption in the lives of the law abiding majority.

These operations are targeted in hot-spot areas identified from police, fire and rescue and council statistics, and extend over a number of days, usually between two and five. Typical activities include:

• high visibility early morning visits to the homes of nuisance neighbours and those engaging in anti-social behaviour to issue final warnings and serve legal action notices

• joint letters delivered to residents in streets where visits have taken place, explaining what has happened and encourage residents to report anti-social behaviour

• council and police walkabouts to identify any issues that affect the quality of life within communities

• Acceptable Behaviour Agreement surgeries where young people sign up to improve on their previous anti-social behaviour

• police and trading standards officer visits to off-licences to make sure staff are aware of their responsibilities not to sell alcohol to under 18s

• graffiti removal and estate tidy-ups by the council’s Clean Neighbourhoods team

• opportunities for local people to come along to a mobile police station parked in different areas and speak to their local police officers and Safer Estates staff about any concerns they may have.

Impact of the campaign

One operation in the Forest Hall, Dudley, Seaton Burn, Burradon, Killingworth and Longbenton areas of North Tyneside illustrates the impact of Operation Respect.

In the weeks leading up to the operation, the safer estates officers met with community representatives and key partners to ensure that the people targeted for Acceptable Behaviour Agreements and joint visits would have the maximum impact. Attendance notices for those called to an Acceptable Behaviour Agreement surgery were hand delivered to parents by police community support officers, helping to ensure a high attendance rate.

• Twenty-nine young people promised to change their ways after signing up to Acceptable Behaviour Agreements.

• Thirty-one residents received an early morning visit by the Safer Estates Team and police. These included three tenants of private rented accommodation, five home owners who were warned the council would seek injunctions if their behaviour did not improve, and one council tenant who was served with a notice of seeking possession. The remainder were served with a legal action notice warning of further action if their behaviour did not change.

The high visibility 7am visits involving two police vans and a marked police car were well received within the local community.

• Police community support officers and housing officers delivered over a thousand joint letters to homes in streets in which a resident had received a warning about their behaviour. The letter reassured residents that a problem of anti-social behaviour in their street was being addressed and gave direct line telephone numbers as well as incident diary sheets.

• Two council tenants relinquished their tenancies as an alternative to facing legal action.

• A case file was prepared which resulted in an anti-social behaviour injunction that excluded a person from entering the Seaton Burn area of Forest Hall on his release from prison later that month. Posters featuring the name and photograph of the person and details of the injunction were circulated to shops and public buildings in the Seaton Burn area of Forest Hall, and a leaflet with this information was delivered to residents in the exclusion area.

Police crime statistics for the two areas targeted by the campaign showed a substantial drop in anti-social behaviour from young people in the first four months of 2009/10 compared with a similar period in 2008/09. Anti-social behaviour attributed to adults also dropped in one of the two police areas (see below).

Forest Hall, Burradon and Killingworth

	April-July 2009	April-July 2008	Difference	% Difference
Youth ASB	56	98	-42	-42.9%
Non Youth ASB	110	131	-21	-16.0%

Longbenton

	April-July 2009	April-July 2008	Difference	% Difference
Youth ASB	483	570764	-87	-15.3%
Non Youth ASB	785	764	+21	+2.7%

North Tyneside Residents’ Survey 2009 found that, when presented with a list of anti-social behaviours, residents were less likely than 12 months ago to say each is problematic.