'We don't get pleasure in criminalising young people' - say Derbyshire Police as they explain how they tackle antisocial behaviour

Crime has been reported over the last few months – causing concern among residents and business owners – with a gym closing its doors early due to anti social behaviour.

One youth was charged with criminal damage worth over £5,000 and assaulting a police officer following an incident at Bolsover castle – and another one was also charged with assaulting a constable.

Sergeant Mark Church and PCSO Evan Mason from Shirebrook SNT, explained how officers are working with the council, schools, parents, and in extreme cases, courts, to ensure safety for the community.

Sgt Church said: “Some young people from Bolsover got charged. Talking about youth, it is quite an extreme measure. Bolsover team did a lot of work and a lot of steps have been taken before sending young people to court.

"Our main job as SNT is to start engaging with people who are upsetting the community and initially try to dealing with it by getting these people on board. We don’t get any pleasure in taking the ultimate punishment and criminalising young people. We try to avoid that if possible.”

Before young people face court proceedings and fines there are several steps officers are taking to try to resolve the issue. Sgt Chruch explained that children under 18 are first issued with an ABC - acceptable behaviour contract – which is a voluntary agreement between a young person and police.

For people over 18, officers can also issue Community Protection Warning (CPW) and if the warning is ignored, police can issue a Community Protection Notice (CPN) and finally a £100 fixed penalty notice. If offenders refuse to pay they can be sent to court.

Sgt Church added: “We are first talking to the children involved in antisocial behaviour, trying to find out who they are and win the trust over. But if they are ignoring these efforts is where we need to take it a level up and have meetings with the council and parents, and decide the next steps. We will try to get everyone on board to move them away from the path of antisocial behaviour.

"But if they keep causing problems like in Bolsover, and we have gone through all the possible warnings and notices, we can then ultimately get to a stage when we have to take someone to court and it might be that we are looking into imposing a criminal behaviour order alongside the court charges.

"If someone breaks that order, they can face a large fine or a sentance of up to five years in prison. That’s a very effective way of dealing with antisocial beahviour - but also a last resort as the last thing we want to do.”

PCSO Evan Mason said: “I find as a police community support officer that early intervention and prevention is one of the key aspects to deter potential young offenders. One of the most successful things that I have seen is early engagement with the schools. In Shirebrook, we are running a mini police - which is a class where we discuss things like antisocial behaviour and knife crime with pupils. As we give these lessons we also give rewards - children are visited by the drone unit, dog section or speedwatching community.”

One of the prominent things SNTs are responsible for are high visibility patrols and deterrence. Officers regularly go out to places where antisocial behaviour can be on the rise, including, town centres or leisure centres. They are trying to get as much intel from members of the community as possible. Based on that they can start their enquiries and issue Facebook and social media appeals to gather more information.

Sgt Church said: “SNTs have to work in partnership with our partners including schools or the council. We have meetings with the council every two weeks where we can identify the people who are causing problems. In some cases, the council might be more aware of antisocial behaviour than we are if it was reported to them. On other occasions, people report incidents to the police and we notify the council. If a name keeps coming up and up again in reports we will talk about it in cooperation with our partners and will plan how we can approach it.

"Sometimes people say that in the old days they used to see more officers on the streets, dealing with antisocial behaviour. I can reassure you that officers are on the streets, doing patrols but we have to do a lot smarter things in the background to fight ABS. This includes mentioned meetings with the council, responding to public props, and talking to the youth engagement team and youth offendings teams.

"It is not always visible on the streets, but we are working tirelessly to make the community safer.”