How we are tackling anti-social behaviour in St Albans district

It’s business as usual for your St Albans, Harpenden and London Colney neighbourhood policing teams (NPTs) who have been out dealing with anti-social behaviour (ASB) during ASB Awareness Week, which runs from Monday 18 to Sunday (24 November).

Neighbourhood policing activities included:

• PC Fiona Hitchcock, PC Charlie Lumm and PCSO Debbie Daniels gave talks about ASB to year 6 pupils at St Bernadettes Catholic primary school, Bowmansgreen Primary School and London Colney Primary School this week.
• PC Ciara Quinn and PC Tom Mason were at Aboyne Lodge on Wednesday (20 November) for ‘mini police’ where students learnt about the beep test, marching and good communication as well as the consequences of anti-social behaviour.
• PCSO Brad Flanagan has been patrolling the Alban Way this week as part of continuous ASB prevention patrols.
• An abandoned car, which was a target for ASB, was removed from Griffiths Way on Tuesday (19 November) by PCSO Matt Bennett working with the council.
• PCSO Chris Stokes and David Munns spoke to residents at Marshalswick Library about how they could report ASB and how to keep themselves safe.
• PC Phil Burns and PC John Cooper carried out a speeding operation in Sandringham Crescent following concerns raised by local residents.

Operation Hotspot – the dedicated operation to specially deal with ASB and violent crime – continues to be successful in the city centre. Extra foot patrols and increased visibility has been taking place in the city centre under the Police and Crime Commissioner’s initiative to provide extra patrols in identified hotspot areas on top of normal business.

Your local NPTs are also continuing to address long and short-term neighbourhood issues, including anti-social behaviour, following feedback from residents.

The current priorities being worked on for St Albans Central, North & West are anti-social behaviour, drug use and drug dealing on the Alban Way between Morrisons and Charrington Place between 12 noon and 4pm; anti-social behaviour involving vehicles and young people at Cottonmill Community Centre, Old Oak between 7pm and midnight and anti-social use of motorbikes in Batchwood open space/New Greens between 6pm and midnight.

One of the neighbourhood priorities for Harpenden and rural is tackling drug and alcohol use and associated anti-social behaviour in parks including Rothamsted Park.  Tackling the anti-social use of vehicles at Starbucks, North Orbital Road, Chiswell Green and the surrounding roads including racing on the A405 and A414 is one of the priorities for the London Colney, St Stephens and St Albans East team.

You can report ASB and crime to police at any time and we also regularly ask you what local issues matter to you most. This helps neighbourhood policing teams set local neighbourhood priorities for issues they will focus on in your area. We work with councils and other organisations to tackle the issues and stop them from happening again,

Alternatively, you can stay 100% anonymous by contacting the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via their untraceable online form.