New house anti social behaviour

lindos90

delmar39 wrote: »

"There are complications and legal issues (civil liberties, human rights etc) which mean that there is not an authority that would install one in a public space and especially not so close to a public footpath."

What a load of s**t! Whats a mosquito for, if not for a public space!

There is one at our local presinct, its not on during the day, so kids going shopping with their parents are not affected,(So if there was one on the library wall, it wouldnt affect any children visiting the library) its turned on at night, particulary at weekends, only the teenagers can hear it.
I would have thought there were more issues re 'civil liberties/human rights' re CCTV if thats the case, but there are lots of places who have that anyway! Sounds like he just doesnt want to get involved or do any work to me!

riverboat2001

Not much help, but where i work was riddled with anti-social yobs, made coming to work a nightmare.
But, with help from the police most of them moved on, eventually though they DO grow up. Good Luck

Davesnave

Probably irrelevant on this thread, but where I used to live, a local Co-op played operas quietly from a speaker mounted on their shop front. It worked a treat in keeping the area clear of 'yoofs.'

kevinyork

I really loath this attitude from the Police that if they turn up they 'move them on'. There is no deterrent in doing this and the kids know it. They have other tools they could use (think one is a sort of exclusion order to stop repeat offenders) but this softly softly approach annoyes me. PCSOs seem to want to befriend the kids and it doesnt work. They need to fear the Police. On an estate I used to live in the Police would go and talk to the parents of the kids that loitered around. This did little use as the parents were glad to have the kids out of their hair.

We never had access to a youth club or any similar place to go but this didnt mean we became a public nuisance instead. They only do it nowadays because the Police never take action. As soon as one or two get arrested for drugs/drunk and disorderly then the message would start getting through.

Unfortunately with the planned cuts the Police will have less time to deal with ASB in future.

delmar39

lindos90 wrote: »

What a load of s**t! Whats a mosquito for, if not for a public space!

There is one at our local presinct, its not on during the day, so kids going shopping with their parents are not affected,(So if there was one on the library wall, it wouldnt affect any children visiting the library) its turned on at night, particulary at weekends, only the teenagers can hear it.
I would have thought there were more issues re 'civil liberties/human rights' re CCTV if thats the case, but there are lots of places who have that anyway! Sounds like he just doesnt want to get involved or do any work to me!

My thoughts exactly :mad: I find that it's all down to personalities in any job. There are people who get things done and sorted out and there are people who don't i.e. this particular ASB Officer. He said he'd been out to visit the site and because of the unusual layout of the library normal CCTV wouldn't work so he's looking at suitable CCTV. Oh my word. Doesn't he realise that the yobs are using it exactly for the reason that it's difficult to monitor what they do! The only way to sort this is to fence it off and put a gate up. They built a sure start centre next door recently and it got the full security treatment and no problems whatsoever. I'd even by happy to part fund it.

delmar39

riverboat2001 wrote: »

Not much help, but where i work was riddled with anti-social yobs, made coming to work a nightmare.
But, with help from the police most of them moved on, eventually though they DO grow up. Good Luck

Thanks. Yeah I hope they do grow up. Perhaps a period of cold weather will keep them away (I'm praying for rain this weekend) and then they'll have found somewhere else. Three of them walked passed yesterday afternoon at around 3pm heading for the library, but the school was about to kick out nearby with parents turning up so they walked on. I bumped into them whilst out on my run in the next village along (about a mile away) so just shows you how much mileage they cover. It's a case of who gets them and when.

delmar39

kevinyork wrote: »

I really loath this attitude from the Police that if they turn up they 'move them on'. There is no deterrent in doing this and the kids know it. They have other tools they could use (think one is a sort of exclusion order to stop repeat offenders) but this softly softly approach annoyes me. PCSOs seem to want to befriend the kids and it doesnt work. They need to fear the Police. On an estate I used to live in the Police would go and talk to the parents of the kids that loitered around. This did little use as the parents were glad to have the kids out of their hair.

We never had access to a youth club or any similar place to go but this didnt mean we became a public nuisance instead. They only do it nowadays because the Police never take action. As soon as one or two get arrested for drugs/drunk and disorderly then the message would start getting through.

Unfortunately with the planned cuts the Police will have less time to deal with ASB in future.

TBH I think it's this that winds me up more than the youths themselves. The fact that 3 months down the line nothing really has been done in terms of prevention just winds me up. The library area manager is actually really good, she keeps going into the police station and is constantly on their backs, but there's only so much she can do with minimal budget. I want to keep her on side. I'm not sure how the ASB Officer's performance is monitored, but if someone looked closely at say Reduced Number of Incidents because of his intervention, I'd be interested to see his actual results.

ERICS_MUM

delmar39 wrote: »

Thanks - totally agree.



Loved reading this - thanks. I'm starting to feel really positive..



Like this idea!

Thanks to all of the above. I've just spoken to the library area manager and they're looking at putting CCTV up, although dummy CCTV. Might work? The library are really concerned and are talking to the police and ASB officer. She also told me that the police are looking at using the library as a base after hours. Things like taking their breaks in the library office and doing their paperwork there. This way it's an informal police station and if the yobs know that they're not likely to turn up. Irregular usage by the police makes it an unsafe place for them to hang out. I like this idea. I've suggested the mini mosquito (and Monsoon - thanks julian) to the local ASB officer and police so I'll see what comes back. I'd even be willing to part fund it and make it a pilot site. I'll keep going.

I'm so glad to hear you being so positive. Hopefully you will be feeling better about it all now that you are getting somewhere, and also because you feel more in control of the situation. Keep running with it, even act as the informal project manager so you can keep the police, library etc. to their word, within timescales and on-going not just for a couple of weeks then they let it go.

Makes me realise how lucky I am where we live, it's easy to take it for granted.

Linda xx

delmar39

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

Keep running with it, even act as the informal project manager so you can keep the police, library etc. to their word, within timescales and on-going not just for a couple of weeks then they let it go.

Hey L, thanks for this. Funny you say this, in my day job I'm a performance / project manager so it's within my nature to be tenacious and keep everyone on track. Yesterday I spoke to everyone involved to check on progress and without knowing it I was doing what you said above! I guess I'm building up my evidence base so that if in two weeks there's no further action I can take things further. Problem is the missus thinks I'm getting too close to this and we end up snapping at each other, but all I'm doing is ensuring people do what they say they're going to do for our own benefit. She just wants to shut the blinds and forget about it, but unless we report it during these early days we have no evidence to fall back on and it won't be highlighted as a hot spot for police tasking and coordinating. I just hope the police follow through the idea of using the library as an out of hours base - this is as good as a fence / gate.

If we lived 200 yards either side of the library we would be none the wiser most probably so we've just been unlucky. On the whole the village is really nice it's just at the moment it's being spoilt by the minority and we have to look out of the window before deciding to go out of our front door. Not good hey.

I do want to get his out of my head though. Parish Council next week, so looking forward to seeing what they have to say about it. I just hope it's not like a scene from The Vicar of Dibley!

pjcox2005

delmar39 wrote: »

A relatively quiet one last evening. Arrived home at 5pm to 3 youths sat on the library wall whilst the library was actually open. The 3 usual suspects. Just having a tab. One of them then made their way to the vacant house nextdoor to us and started sniffing around. They eventually walked off, but couldn't walk in a straight line.

5 mins after the library closed at 6pm one of them came back and went behind the library for around 20 mins. Came out even wobblier (if that's a word!). Later on another one turned up with his girlfriend and sat on the library bench. Luckily, the police turned up and spent 20 minutes chatting to them. Police eventually drove off, the couple stayed there for a few mins, then thought better of it and walked off. It's good that the police are patrolling. Often two youths often turns into 15 very quickly, so this action prevented further potential problems.

So, incidents each night still, but not massive ones. Just going to call the library to see what progress they're making.

I know I'll be shot down here but seriously the note above (and I accept you refer to quiet night) suggests 3 individuals sitting on a wall during the day as friends (you refer to a tab - is that drugs or just a rolled up cigarette which until recently you could smoke from 16. I'd be impressed if you can tell with out walking over to smell it. Not saying it isn't illegal and certainly not particularly healthy but not the biggest crime). You could get a similar scene outside every office block with people on their smoking break.

Next incident, someone turned up, went round the back of the library and then wobbled home. Doesn't sound particularly disruptive.

Third, an individual sat on a library bench with his girlfriend....it's a could job the police moved them on, who knows what their next subject of conversation may be.

I appreciate I'm exaggerating the point and on nights when damage takes place that is an issue, but the points above suggest you have lost site of the problem.

As for these other deterrents, I actually agree that they shouldn't be used and in fringe children's rights. For the mosquito what about teenagers who just live close to the library and have to put up with it 24/7. Would you condone loud music playing in the day to stop OAPs hanging round a park?

Talk of a monsoon, if you gathered with the local parents chatting for 10 mins would you appreciate being sprayed with water? What if you had enjoyed a good night at the local pub and were just saying your goodbyes outside before dispercing?

I'm not saying that teenagers can't be a nuisance at times (and obviously vandalism needs to be stopped) but i think people have lost perspective when they are effectively referring to teenagers as animals. I'm not surprised they don't always look up to the older generation.

Final point to the poster who seemed to take offence to a skate park being built...is that really that bad a thing that children can socialise in an active way outside?