Anti-social behaviour

Anti-social behaviour includes a range of problems. Ealing Council’s definition, taken from the Crime and Disorder Act and used in the Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy:

"...in a manner which caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household..."

The definition from the Crime and Disorder Act 1998:

Anti-social behaviour can include (but is not exhaustive of): noisy neighbours, groups or individuals making threats, street drinking, begging, hoax calls, abandoned vehicles, dropping litter, graffiti, damage to bus shelters, inappropriate use of fireworks, stray dogs, dog fouling, loud music, taking drugs, cycling on footpaths, verbal abuse, flytipping and urinating in the street.

Physical anti-social behaviour is not easily resolved, hence the safer communities team at Ealing Council has a range of options it can implement to ease the burden upon victims and witnesses of such activity.  

Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs)
ASBOs are civil orders made by a court which prohibit the perpetrator from specific anti-social acts and from entering defined areas on a map (exclusion zones). An order lasts for a minimum of two years. The purpose of an ASBO is to protect the public from behaviour that causes, or is likely to cause, harassment or alarm or distress, not simply to punish the perpetrator.

A community-based order involves local people in collecting evidence and helping to enforce breaches of the prohibitions in the order. The orders are designed to encourage local communities to become actively involved in reporting crime and anti-social behaviour, thus building and protecting the community of which they are part.  

Collecting evidence
If you and your neighbours are victims of anti-social behaviour and wish to report an act or acts which you consider as anti-social and which seriously affect your quality of life, it is important that you record these acts.
In order to build a case against a perpetrator you should:
  • inform the safer communities team of your complaint. All complaints are recorded and assessed and will be dealt with once further researched
  • keep a diary of events
  • if a crime is in progress, call the police
  • use residents association or your local housing officer to report incidents, also to local elected members

Police and community safety officers check databasesto build up a picture of nuisance. On this basis the decision is passed to legal teams to decide whether to take action or not.