Anti-social behaviour continues to fall across Essex

Operations to clamp down on anti-social behaviour (ASB) across the county are delivering results as the number of ASB incidents in Essex continues to drop.

There were 7,888 fewer incidents reported in the year to the end of July 2023 – a 31.5% decrease in comparison with the previous 12 months.

ASB has fallen by at least 22% in every district in Essex in the past year but the force is stepping up efforts to further drive down numbers with a series of proactive initiatives.

Our community policing teams work in partnership with community safety officers, council officials, local businesses and neighbourhood groups to combat problems including street drinking, intimidating behaviour, nuisance vehicles and irresponsible bike and e-scooter riding.

This has now been boosted by an extra £1.1m being invested in high-visibility patrols and targeted intervention in eleven hotspots in Chelmsford, Colchester, Southend, Harlow, Basildon, Clacton, Brentwood, Epping and Thurrock.

The funding has been provided by Essex’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner as part of the government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy. It will pay for around 30,000 additional hours of patrols that will including focused days of action.

Across the districts, examples of our proactive operations include:

Southend Community Policing Team (CPT) working with the city council and Business Improvement District (BID) to combat ASB on the High Street and surrounding areas and to enforce the terms of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) that prohibits bikes and e-scooters. There have been 1,233 fewer ASB incidents in the district in the past year.

Harlow CPT’s Operation Shopper has seen more than 100 illegally ridden e-scooters seized and more than 200 alcoholic drinks confiscated as officers enforced the terms of the town’s PSPO. The district has seen a 33.5% fall in ASB with 519 fewer incidents.

In Chelmsford, operations have been running to tackle aggressive begging and issues related to drugs and alcohol at the bus station and surrounding areas, and to combat nuisance vehicles and speeding. This has led to 31% drop in offences in the district with 1,468 recorded.

Bikers in Thurrock had been illegally accessing private land and using the borough’s green spaces as racetracks leading to complaints from residents. This led to the launch of Op Caesar and the purchase of two police quads bikes in conjunction with the council. Across the district there were 739 fewer ASB incidents – a drop of 29%.

Superintendent Naomi Edwards, the force lead for anti-social behaviour, said:

“Anti-social behaviour can ruin lives and damage communities. The reduction in the number of incidents is very encouraging and shows the work we are doing is having an impact.

“ASB is not a ‘low-level’ offence or something that people should be forced to put up with. Nobody should feel intimidated or harassed where they live or work and together with our partners, we are tackling the underlying causes and taking enforcement action against those responsible.

“It’s important that the public continue to report incidents to us. The more we know, the more we can do to resolve the issues that have such a negative impact of people’s quality of life.”

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