Rowdy yobs cause 23,000 complaints in Wiltshire (From This Is Wiltshire)

Rowdy yobs cause 23,000 complaints in Wiltshire

12:22pm Sunday 5th July 2009 in

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Rowdy behaviour is the biggest cause for complaint among people in Wiltshire, Government figures have revealed.

A Home Office file showed Wiltshire Police recorded 23,071 incidents of “rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour” across the county in 2007/8.

Since the figures cover reported incidents, and not offences, it is likely only a proportion would have resulted in further action such as cautions or prosecutions. But they provide an indication of the extent of concern over nuisance behaviour in the county.

The figures came as Home Secretary Alan Johnson admitted ministers had taken their eye off the ball when it came to sorting out anti-social behaviour.

Mr Johnson said: “We’ve followed intensive activity with a certain degree of complacency on the issue.”

He pledged new measures including fast-tracking yobs through courts and moves to cut the time it can take to give out Asbos.

The Home Office records suggested the number of ‘hate incidents’ reported in Wiltshire were 6,788 in 2007/8 – more than in any other part of the country, exceeding even London’s Metropolitan Police, which recorded 4,362, Greater Manchester (5,574), as well as neighbouring force areas such as Hampshire (2,116) and Thames Valley (441).

Hate crime is any criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by an offender’s hatred of someone because of their race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality or national origins; religion; gender identity; sexual orientation or disability.

However, Wiltshire Police questioned the figures and said the true number of hate incidents for the year in question was much lower.

A spokesman said: “For some reason, there would appear to have been a reporting error of some kind. The unaudited figure for reports of hate incidents for the financial year 2007/8 is 365.

“Our crime rate is the seventh lowest in England and Wales for racially or religiously aggravated crimes and 39 per cent below the national average.”

If the hate crime figure is disregarded, the next largest group of public order incidents reported in Wiltshire, was malicious communications (2,277), according to the figures.

They were followed by nuisance neighbours (1,893), abandoned vehicles that were not stolen or causing an obstruction (1,690) and hoax calls to emergency services (714). At the other end of the scale, just 87 complaints were made about substance misuse, 111 about trespass and 194 about street drinking.

Other categories included the inappropriate use, sale or possession of fireworks, with 214 incidents reported, alongside 252 incidents of so-called “animal problems”, 277 of begging and 405 of noise.

The information came from the National Incident Category List, on which police are expected to record every incident, whether from victims, witnesses or third parties, and whether crime-related or not.

Most reports are received via telephone calls from the public or visits to police station front offices.

Mr Johnson, who provided the information in a Parliamentary written answer, said following a review of the burdens placed on police forces by the Home Office, the National Incident Category List had been simplified for 2009 with a 33 per cent “reduction in complexity”.

This would mean a “significant decrease in the data demand placed on forces”, he added.