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Pilot of "community trigger" - requiring action over anti-social behaviour - to begin in summer: May

Pilots of the so-called ‘Community Trigger’ – where the police and local authorities will be forced to take action if they receive complaints from five households in one area about anti-social behaviour – will begin in the summer, the Home Secretary has announced.

In a speech, Teresa May also revealed that a trial with eight police forces and their local partners of new ways of handling calls from the public about ASB had provided encouraging initial results. The lessons from the trial are to shared nationwide.

The benefits included “better working relationships with other agencies, an improved service to the victim and the start of a shift in culture, with call handlers responding to the needs of the victim, rather than just ticking boxes”.

However, the Home Secretary said the most important advantage of the system was that it helped police forces identify high-risk individuals  – “often people experiencing the most horrendous abuse - who might otherwise have slipped through the net”.

May said: “It’s too easy to overlook the harm that persistent anti-social behaviour causes. Many police forces, councils and housing providers are working hard, but I still hear horror stories of victims reporting the same problem over and over again, and getting no response."

The Home Secretary added: “These long-running problems - and the sense of helplessness that goes with them - can destroy a victim's quality of life and shatter a community's trust in the police.”

Elswhere in the speech May stressed the key role that the National Crime Agency would have going forwards. She said the NCA must:

  1. Have “a positive effect on the safety of local communities by joining up the law enforcement response from the local to the national and the international”;
  2. Act as “the controlling hand, by owning the coordinated intelligence picture; working with law enforcement to decide on the highest priority criminal targets; agreeing the action necessary to tackle them; and having the power to ensure that action is taken”; and
  3. Bring its own contribution to the fight against serious, organised and complex crime – “that means having its own intelligence gathering and investigate capacity; sophisticated technical skills; and a presence internationally, at the border and in cyber space”.

The Home Secretary also said in her speech that:

  • She would accept the recommendations of the independent Police Arbitration Tribunal in relation to police pay in full. These recommendations were based on the first Winsor report;
  • The issue of the proposed Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance will be considered again as part of the second Winsor report;
  • The Home Office would be helping police forces to use their collective buying power to procure goods and services. “It makes no sense for the police to buy things in 43 different ways, but this is what happens”;
  • The government will launch the next stage in crime mapping this week. This will map crimes to or near public places such as railway stations, nightclubs, parks and shopping areas. The maps will include information on what action the police took and what the criminal justice outcome was;
  • The government is working with the police service to establish a Police Professional Body, to represent all ranks, staff and officers.

Philip Hoult