Yob-menace poll sparks dispute

A survey carried out for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) by national research firm Ipsos MORI reveals a high level of concern among the public.

But SYP claims its own figures, which officers say are produced using a much wider-ranging methodology, prove recent work to tackle the menace is paying dividends.

HMIC launched a review of police anti-social behaviour policies in the wake of cases such as that involving Garry Newlove, who was killed by youths outside his Warrington home.

Another recent example is that of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her disabled daughter Francecca after suffering repeated victimisation at their house in Leicestershire.

The HMIC review assessed the public perception of anti-social behaviour in South Yorkshire and the mechanisms the force has in place to deal with similar repeat-victim cases.

Inspectors said their survey revealed 65 per cent of people thought the issue was a "big problem" and also highlighted failings in the forces systems for dealing with offenders.

According to the HMIC report, South Yorkshire Police's command and control system is "less than ideal" when it comes to identifying vulnerable victims of anti-social behaviour.

The document also shows that 32 per cent of people believe there is a higher level of anti-social behaviour now than there was a year ago, which is also disputed by police.

Responding to the findings of the Inspectorate in a report to the county's police authority, assistant chief constable

Andy Holt admits there are "issues" with the force control system.

But he adds that the 65 per cent figure is a great deal higher than that found by the force's own Your Voice Counts survey, which questions a much higher number of people.

Mr Holt says: "Just 101 telephone interviews were conducted with a random selection of people who, according to local police records, had contacted the police to report anti-social behaviour during September 2009.

"Notwithstanding the glaringly obvious differences in sample and methodology, our own local confidence survey, which is carried out on a much more local level, shows a very different picture.

"Your Voice Counts shows that, force-wide, there has been a significant reduction in the proportion of residents agreeing that anti-social behaviour in their area is a big problem – down to 36.6 per cent."

According to the latest South Yorkshire Police figures anti-social behaviour has decreased "significantly" as a result of several projects currently being run by the force.

It is claimed that in Doncaster incidents are down 10.4 per cent, in Rotherham down by 8.9 per cent, in Barnsley down by 7.8 per cent and in Sheffield down by 11.7 per cent.

In response to HMIC's concerns over identifying repeat victims of anti-social behaviour such as Mr Newlove or Mrs Pilkington, Mr Holt says adaptations have been made.

He reports that a replacement system is a current priority

and adds: "The force command and control system does not have the functionality to enable easy identification of such victims.

"The force has designed a manual system and as such is satisfied that we are able to make those identifications.

"It is essential that any replacement command and control system contains such functionality."