Police to be given seizure powers to tackle anti-social behaviour
Yobs will have their iPods, stereos and other status symbols confiscated by police under new powers announced today.
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By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor 6:30AM GMT 07 Feb 2011
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The government is scrapping controversial anti-social behaviour orders and replacing them with new measures that will give the police power to ban troublemakers from town centres and street corners for up to two years.
Anyone breaching the new "criminal behaviour orders" will face having their assets seized in the same manner as major criminals.
Possessions particularly prized by youths - such as electronic gadgets and stereo systems - are likely to be targeted.
A Government source said: "We want punishments that are meaningful and useful."
The reforms will also include measures to ensure that police take complaints of low-level offending more seriously.
Police will be also be forced to investigate any incident of anti-social behaviour reported by at least five people, under plans to introduce a "community trigger" for minor crime.
The new measures are aimed at forcing police to take complaints of low-level offending more seriously, in an effort to address rising public concern about youth crime.
The "community trigger" follows cases such as Fiona Pilkington who killed herself and her daughter, after little was done to stop years of torment from a teenage gang.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, will today formally scrap Labour's Asbo in an overhaul of measures to deal with nuisance and minor crime.
Police will be given discretion to deal with incidents instantly, such as forcing culprits to make an immediate amends, instead of taking more formal action through the courts.
It could see those who prey on local communities repairing whatever damage they have caused, such as cleaning graffiti or fixing a damaged fence, or some form of pay back to the neighbourhood as a whole, such as picking up rubbish or washing a patrol car.
It is part of the Coalition's pledge to restore "common sense" policing to the streets.
A Whitehall source said it was about being "practical and restorative" but also had to be "meaningful" and, where appropriate, with the consent of the victim.
There will also be more powers for residents to make sure police take anti-social behaviour seriously. Under a so-called "community trigger", officers will have to investigate any incident where at least five people have complained.
However, while the Anti-social Behaviour Order will be binned, police and local authorities will still be able to apply for a type of court order to deal with low level nuisance.
They will be called "criminal behaviour orders" and will target specific activities, such as someone who is convicted of being drunk and disorderly being banned from a town centre for two years.
The move could leave the Government open to accusations that it is simply an Asbo by a different name just days after they faced similar claims over the replacement for control orders, where subjects still face a form of curfew and other restrictions.
Ministers are also to review what punishments should be available when someone breaches a court order following concerns breaches of Asbos were not treated seriously enough.
Figures last month showed a total of 18,670 Asbos have been issued since they were introduced in 1999 but some 56 per cent have been breached, with most ignored at least four times during their period.
However, of those who do breach, only 53 per cent were sent to prison.
The orders were first unveiled by Tony Blair in 1999 and formed a key part of his Respect agenda.
However, they soon became the subject of ridicule, with some offenders claiming it as a "badge of honour" and its use by local authorities has plummeted in the past five years.
Sir Denis O'Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, warned in September that police have lost control of the streets as figures showed that an estimated 14 million incidents of anti-social behaviour take place each year — one every two seconds.
Today's review will signal a significant change in the way anti-social behaviour is tackled.
Authorities have been accused of not taking anti-social behaviour seriously enough, especially in the aftermath of cases such as Fiona Pilkington.
She killed herself and her 18-year-old Francecca Hardwick, who suffered from learning disabilities, in October 2007.
Their deaths followed 10 years of torment at the hands of yobs who taunted them and pelted their property with stones, eggs and flour.
Mrs May said last summer it was "time to move beyond the Asbo" and called for a "complete change in emphasis", with communities working with the police and other agencies to stop bad behaviour escalating.
Labour has been criticised for creating a plethora of court orders to tackle nuisance, including parent orders, graffiti removal orders and dog control orders, on top of the Asbo but many of which have been hardly used.
The review is expected to tear most of the orders up.
In their place will be a series of more "streamlined" measures.
As well as the criminal behaviour orders they will be civil injunctions that can be obtained "within hours rather than months" to stop nuisance activities, court orders to close a property where there has been persistent disorder and fines for people who have been a persistent nuisance in an area.
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