Neighbourhood PC David Loveday outlines the work being done in the area

Towards the end of last year, the Acton Central Safer Neighbourhoods Team went through a small transformation. Sgt James Bister took over and I joined, having been working with the Special Constabulary in Acton. What became clear to us was that, like many town and city centres, we had an issue with the number of people who were drinking alcohol on our streets in large numbers on a daily basis.

This was beginning to be addressed before we arrived but the traditional approach of confiscating open cans, dispersing groups who were engaged in associated Anti- Social Behaviour and issuing Fines and arresting for any offences wasn’t achieving enough. Though this disrupted outdoor drinking at the time, it was apparent that it was not going far enough, the individuals were returning each day and that we were affecting no real change.

As such we decided to look at it with a problem solving approach. We examined the available legislation, spoke to partner agencies and set ourselves some reachable targets.

We decided immediately that we needed to become more robust and direct in our aims. We didn’t want to merely punish or disrupt this behaviour, we wanted to identify the cause and stop it. For example we made two changes that had a direct impact on those who spent all their time drinking on the streets. Firstly we made the decision to confiscate all alcohol in their possession. Historically most officers will empty the open cans but allow them to keep the ones that were sealed. We no longer do that. Every can or bottle is now confiscated and thrown away. Secondly, and with regards to issuing fines, we decided that for our persistent outdoor drinkers, once we had recorded that we had warned them about their drinking, we then proceeded to issue a fine every time we found them drinking.

So after a period of filling the drains of Acton with alcohol and issuing fine after fine, we began to see a clear reduction in the numbers of drinkers we were fining, we were disposing of less alcohol, and we were seeing fewer groups of drinkers on the streets.

As you know though, this did not completely resolve the problem. We still had drinkers who refuse to accept the change we were trying to implement and would merely accept a ticket. So we had to go further. We looked into the new Anti-Social behaviour Act and have implemented a Community Protection Notice (CPN) in relation to street drinking. This is a power given to the Police where we can identify a problem of Anti-Social Behaviour in an area, and which allows us to impose restrictions on repeat offenders in a similar way to the powers given courts under the old system of Anti- Social Behaviour Orders (ABSO).

So in the early stages of the CPN process we had to gather evidence to show there was an issue that was not addressed by everyday laws. For Acton Central this was pretty straight forward, we gathered statements from the public, showing that you were affected by their behaviour. We were able to point to the huge amount of litter left in areas where they meet up, the noise and its impact on those who live close to these spots, the use of public space as a public toilet, the arguments and drunken fights, and even the rough sleeping.

I have done a lot of work with the homeless in my career, and I would bristle if someone suggested to me that being homeless was Anti-social, yet the closer we looked at it the more we saw. It became evident very soon that many of the people who were sleeping in our bin areas, in communal areas in flats or tower blocks, actually had homes close by to where they were sleeping. This was not rough sleeping as a result of being homeless, but actually just going and pitching up for the night in a sheltered spot to get drunk and not have the hassle of having to walk home at the end of the night.

So in consultation and partnership with the Ealing Safer Communities Team we were able to start to use CPNs. We now have a position where we have a 3 step process for warning, enforcement and ultimately, prosecution. Once we identify someone who is consistently drinking on the streets of Acton and is engaging with groups of other drinkers associated with the behaviour I have highlighted above, we issue them with a verbal warning in a language they can understand. These warnings are all formally recorded, and if they chose to ignore this warning and continue to drink on the streets, we issue a written warning. And finally if they persist, and continue to act in an antisocial manner, we will issue them with the CPN itself. This generally includes banning them from the area, prohibiting them from having open cans in public or being with other people who have open cans etc.

To this end we have issued 5 CPNs, this means we have gone through the whole process above with five different individuals. One of these individuals continued act antisocially and breach his CPN and has been successful prosecuted, with a second individual going to court next month for breaching his CPN. Should a person choose to ignore all of this we will apply for a Criminal Behaviour Order from the courts which is the updated version of the ASBO.

One of the key things about neighbourhood policing is the need to work with our partners and look at all options and approaches to deal with problems that affect the quality of life for our community. We recognised that a number of our outdoor drinkers were foreign nationals, some of which were from within the European Union. Individuals within the EU have the right to move freely and settle in countries within it, however this is not an absolute privilege and in order to do this, they must be living within the terms of the treaty. This means, in general terms, that those individuals will move for work and will positively contribute to that country. The standards expected are not particularly high and there is a safety net for those who travel with positive intentions, but for whatever reasons fall on hard times when they actually arrive.

Some of the individuals who we were dealing with on nearly a daily basis did not appear to be living within the terms of the treaty. They were not working, were making no attempts to gain employment and often their only income was obtained through begging. As such we did some street visits with a pro-active team from the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) and spoke to many of the people we had concerns about. Their details were collected and for those who appeared to fall short of the terms of the Treaty, appointments were made with UKBA where they could demonstrate that they were doing their best to meet the standards set.

On our last street visit with UKBA a male was identified as having been already spoken to by UKBA while in prison, and had failed to make any effort to show UKBA that he was attempting to meet the standard. As such he was detained and after a short period he was deported from the UK and is banned from returning.

Additionally last week we had an EU national who was constantly coming to our attention for begging in Morrisons and drinking on the Mount. He had been through the process of being issued fines, being warned and had recently been issued with his CPN. We had reports he was out again and when I went to investigate we found him in Morrisons car park where he is specifically banned from. I was aware he had been asked to provide proof that he was living within the terms of the Treaty, and I was satisfied that he was not doing this. I contacted UKBA and they were able to confirm that he had made no effort to contact them, and that he ad been given several chances to do so.

We therefore arranged for him to be detained at Acton Police Station and with the support of UKBA he was served with a IS91 detention notice. He too will be returned to his home nation and will be prohibited from returning.

This was a male who had been given many chances to stop the identified behaviour and had chosen to ignore each one. He was drinking and begging in Morrisons car park most days. He had realised that older ladies were the most likely to help him and he used this knowledge to target the most vulnerable in order to finance his alcoholism.

This goes to provide an insight into the work currently being undertaken by your local neighbourhood team in Acton Central in tackling outdoor drinking and associated anti-social behaviour, but whilst we are dealing with these issues, we are also responding to incidents, gathering intelligence on ongoing investigations and identifying and dealing with other issues that our community is bringing to our attention.

PC David Loveday

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15 September 2016