Police response times for anti-social behaviour up 37pc
Police are taking up to 17 and a half hours to respond to anti-social behaviour calls, official figures show.
Average police response times to call-outs to tackle anti-social behaviour incidents have increased by 37 per cent since 2021, according to the police obtained through Freedom of Information laws by the Liberal Democrats.
The average time for a police officer to attend an anti-social behaviour incident was three hours and 40 minutes in 2023 compared with two hours 44 minutes in 2021.
This, however, masked big differences in the average response times between police forces. Suffolk had the longest wait times in England last year, with police taking an average of 17 and a half hours to attend anti-social behaviour reports, followed closely behind by Norfolk where wait times were 17 hours and 29 minutes.
Suffolk had the longest wait times in England last year, with police taking an average of 17 and a half hours to attend anti-social behaviour reports, followed closely behind by Norfolk where wait times were 17 hours and 29 minutes.
Cambridgeshire also had extremely long wait times, which stood at 11 and a half hours. This compared with eight minutes on average in Essex, eleven minutes in Humberside, 15 minutes in Avon and Somerset, 16 minutes in Warwickshire and 19 minutes in Merseyside.
The shocking figures follow the Crime Survey for England and Wales which found that in the year ending September 2023, more than one third of people had experienced or witnessed some type of anti-social behaviour, with the police recording one million incidents.
Relentless and overwhelming
Sir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, said: “For its victims, anti-social behaviour can be relentless, overwhelming and deeply distressing. Being left to wait hours, wondering if a police officer will turn up and help, only adds to that stress.
“Nobody should be afraid to walk down their own street. But this is the consequence of years of ineffective resourcing from the Conservatives and a diminished frontline police presence.
“The British people deserve to feel confident that if they do fall victim to crime, the police will turn up swiftly. That’s why it’s time to finally restore proper community policing, with officers focused on their local neighbourhoods.”
Victims’ commissioner Baroness Newlove is campaigning for victims to be eligible for statutory support if they make three consecutive reports of anti-social behaviour to local authorities. She has pressed for it to be included in the government’s victims and prisoners bill currently before Parliament.
She said police look at anti-social behaviour cases as neighbourly nuisance and wait until they reach a certain threshold before they escalate them as a crime.
One example involved a victim who reported 280 cases over 10 months, including noise nuisance, anonymous harassment, and threats and intimidation. It culminated in a firebomb attack on the victims’ property - and only after this were they eligible for statutory support.
