A 48-hour dispersal order was put in place in Newport over the weekend in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour in the county town.
The order, under Section 34 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, ran from 15:30 on Saturday 10th June until 15:30 this afternoon (Monday) and was authorised in response to anti-social behaviour (ASB) in Church Litten, and associated criminality such as shoplifting in the town centre.
The Newport Neighbourhoods Policing Team are said to have been working hard to address ASB and retail crime in the town, and dispersal orders such as these are just 1 of the tactics available to us to tackle these issues.
Dispersal orders enable police to deal with any issues of anti-social behaviour a directed area more effectively and give our officers the power to order a person to leave the area with no return within the specified time period. Those who refuse to comply with the order are committing a criminal offence and are liable for arrest.
Officers have been conducting foot patrols in the area during the dispersal period, and 2 men, aged 49 and 65 respectively, were ordered to disperse by Police. These 2 individuals subsequently breached this dispersal order and they will be reported for summons in due course.
A spokesperson for Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary has said:
“ASB and the associated criminality makes life miserable for local people and businesses. We will continue to make enquiries and take action in relation to shopliftings in the town, and encourage anyone affected by ASB or retail crime to please keep reporting incidents to us so we can use the most effective tactics available to us to tackle it”.
Anyone with information about anti-social behaviour is asked to contact Police on 101, or submit information to us online via our reporting tool here. If a crime is in progress, call 999.
Why not have it permanently in place ?
A good deterrent.
All children should be under permanent house arrest.
That would require more police on the streets to monitor it and I’m sure from the 600 new officers coming to the south, we are probably not getting any. It’s no good putting laws in place if you can’t police them.
Tag them all then. Easy to monitor any movements and pin crimes on scumbags.
It really shouldn’t be something that’s worthy of being reported in the press that police officers ‘have been conducting foot patrols’.
This is something which every police officer should be doing, several times a week.
A couple of years ago CP reported that there were over 100 police officers on the Island in various roles, uniformed and plain clothed, surely a couple of hours a week patrolling the town centres for each of them should be possible?
It doesn’t need to be every area in every town, I think we all know the particular areas that could do with a police presence.
Ha ha – over 100 police officers on the island. Almost fell off my chair laughing at that one. A recent IE article stated that there are eight police officers on duty on the whole island at any one time.
That’s why vehicles clutter our streets with NO MOT’s and F*k all gets done about it.
8 x 12 = 96 so about right if it is the whole year, 4 short of the 100 quoted. Or were they stating 100 permanent, only time that happens is Isle of Wight Festival
Where have you got the 12 from?