Repeated calls to police about anti-social behaviour
The largest ever survey of victims of anti-social behaviour finds a quarter of people have called police to report incidents six or more times in a year.
The Mori poll of over 9,000 people also found that one in seven have rung police more than ten times.
The findings have emerged as part of a follow-up report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) looking at the progress of police forces in response to the 2010 review, entitled “Stop the Rot”.
The inspection has found there has been a rise in “victim satisfaction” with the police response and a slight fall in the total number of recorded anti-social behaviour incidents from 3.6 million to 3.2 million in England and Wales in 2011/12, although senior officers believe the figures are higher than that.
But HMIC also found it “unacceptable” that that one in three victims said they still do not get the service they expect. Vulnerable victims of repeated anti-social behaviour are “slipping through the net” and many feel let down.
Chief Inspector Sir Denis O’Connor said there has been a real step forward, but there needs to be more consistency in applying practices that identify repeat victims. He admitted there was still a long way to go.
He said it was impossible to rule out further tragic cases like that of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her disabled daughter Francesca Harwick in 2007 having suffered years of abuse.
The review points out that the number of calls has changed little in the last two years.
Sir Denis said there are economic benefits in the face of budget cuts from identifying repeat victims and taking action, thereby reducing the number of calls and freeing up police time.