Imagine this, you are alone, walking down your street heading out to the nearby local shops, the Grandkids have raided the fridge and its only Wednesday! Sound familiar? As you approach the shops you can see a group of youths hanging around the grassed area, one girl is playing her mobile phone music and another is laughing really loud, one lad is kicking a football to his mate in the distance whilst another is chatting to girlfriend, talking about what’s happening at the youth club tonight.
What action do you take?
A) Turn around and head home, they must be causing trouble. B) Carry on to the shops, be wary, hide your purse and look straight ahead, try not to attract any attention. C) Carry on to the shops with caution but think to yourself, it’s just a group of friends not necessarily causing trouble.
Did you choose A or B? Unfortunately due to all the negative media attention that surrounds young people from around the country this is the perception that some adults will take.
Although Stockton remains the safest place to live in the TeesValley we take anti social behaviour very seriously and we can happily say that the number of asb incidents reported to the police and council in the last year has reduced by 15%. Approximately 40% of these incidents relate to young people, that’s under half and many of those reports are based on peoples perceptions!
From our summer consultation residents identified asb as a top priority. With the joint efforts from the ASB team, and partners we continue to drive down figures for crime and asb. We have successfully curbed the amount of deliberate fire settings, by a reduction of 35%! We know that alcohol can play a large role in offending behaviour, this is why we continue to go into schools to raise awareness about alcohol and its connection with anti social behaviour . In 2010 the number of alcohol related AS-13’s reduced from 2009 by 47.3% - that’s 434 less incidents!
Our new Community Safety plan which came into action in April 2011 contains information on what we intend to do about the key priorities identified by residents in the consultation.
If you are affected by anti social behaviour please report it to us on the 24-hour hotline 01642 607943.