AS police across St Helens take part in a week of action to specifically target anti-social behaviour in the town, the Star spoke to the head of St Helens police about what they have planned.
Monday, July 3 marked the start of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Awareness Week, a national campaign that the Community Policing teams at St Helens and elsewhere in Merseyside are actively supporting.
The aim is to highlight the impact of ASB and bring people and organisations together to make their communities safer.
Police at St Helens are keen to build on the successful reduction of crimes often associated with anti-social behaviour in the town centre following the granting of several court orders against prolific offenders during the last 18 months.
Alcohol-related crime has decreased by 9%, shoplifting by 14% and possession of weapons by 28% in St Helens town centre for the 12 months ending 31 May 2023 compared to the previous 12 months.
Speaking to the Star, Superintendent Steve Brizell, who heads up the Community Policing Team at St Helens, said: “The town centre is a focus for us from a policing perspective so there’s a number of different aspects to that such as Criminal Behaviour Orders so really persistent offenders with anti-social behaviours that get drawn into criminality.
"We can then use civil orders, and we’ve had three of those who have each had impact in the town centre and across St Helens as well, that enables us to put some conditions on them through the courts.
“We have dedicated town centre community police officers across the three teams, and they will work closely with The Hope Centre, Teardrops, the YMCA, Salvation Army etc to work with individuals they think can benefit from their support and educate people on their impact and how that affects the whole community.
“It’s not about criminalising somebody, it’s about preventing issues in the future.
“Another thing we’ve used sparingly is dispersal zones to disrupt the activity and stop people coming together.
“From a youth perspective, a massive part of our constant and relentless effort is to divert the activity and we are looking to fund positive life workshops to have people focus on relationship building with friends and peers and leading positive lives.
"We work with the Think Fast Foundation with Martin Murray on a similar focus to give people a focus into congregating around sport and also doing stuff with the positive life workshops and the YMCA which is finding alternatives away from sports and we also do Fuzzfest.
“We coordinate weekly with the local authority about the ASB outreach and the street intervention team who speak to people directly and talk about where youth clubs are and where people can go.
“We focus on the town centre but also parks and open spaces, we have issues particularly over the summer as the town centre is less of an issue in the day as people go to the parks and open spaces but as the evening closes in, they come back to the town centre.
“People say all the time that they want their kids outside playing not on their Xbox or PlayStation so it’s a fine balance and its difficult for police to make that judgement and its about working with the young people but it’s the same plea all the time for parents to take responsibility for where their children are and what they are doing and if they are in the town centre that has to potential of them being involved in activity that could lead them to falling foul of the police.
“Part of this week of action is test purchase operation around underage drink and bringing in drug dogs to the area and proactive operation looking into the anti-social use of scrambler bikes utilising specialist police support from Roads Policing, PCSOs going out into schools discussing the effects of ASB.
"We have a trading standards operation looking into the sales of vapes and tobacco products and working with Merseyside Fire and Rescue to do surveys in hot spots to figure out what is going on and to be honest that goes on every month.
“We are working with McDonalds extensively at the moment to tackle the ASB they are dealing with currently because they have a business to run, but that’s ongoing anyway not due to an action week.
“We’ve had funding from the government to put in new and improved CCTV in the town centre in places where we didn’t have as good coverage. The LA are replacing all the cameras in the next year to modernise them.
“The fear of crime far outweighs the reality of being a victim of crime. Anti-social behaviour is something we take seriously and if you are not sure what you are witnessing just report it anyway via 101 or online or Crimestoppers which is completely independent of the police, and we never find out who has supplied the information.
“People may think that police haven’t done anything about something they have reported but that doesn’t mean we are not using that information to then drive activity at a later date.
“Sometimes the public might never know if their information has led to anything, but rest assured all the information is recorded and used and often leads to police action further down the line.”
Councillor Mancyia Uddin, St Helens Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, said: “Our partnership approach to tackling ASB with Merseyside Police, Torus and other partners is making a positive difference in key areas like St Helens Town Centre, but there is much more work to be done here and across the borough.
“Our ASB Outreach team will be out and about across the borough this week as they always are, engaging with residents and young people in our streets and parks, addressing scrambler bike concerns, signposting young people to activities and sharing open water safety advice. Our Trading Standards officers will be watching out for rogue traders and visiting vape shops, which are becoming ever more attractive to those underage, to ensure that sellers are compliant and enforcing if they are not.
“Reporting ASB or crime in your area can feel like taking a risk, but there are safe and discreet ways of doing so."
If you are experiencing anti-social behaviour or are a victim of a crime, you are encouraged to report this to Merseyside Police via the force website here: merseyside.police.uk/ro/report You can also report via social media @MerPolCC on Facebook and Twitter.
Alternatively, you can call 101, or to report anonymously via Crimestoppers call 0800 555111.
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