Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne reflects on six months of the National Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan
After being selected as one of ten trailblazer areas to deliver Immediate Justice (IJ) as part of the Government’s National Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) Action Plan, Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) Katy Bourne is pleased to welcome the completion of recruitment to fulfil the Sussex IJ Taskforce.
The taskforce, led by Chief Inspector Andy Saville (who is also the Sussex Police Lead for ASB) is now operational and made up of a Programme Manager, Analyst and three Delivery Officers, all of whom will be working closely with Sussex Police and partners to ensure that offenders of ASB are referred through the scheme to swiftly repair the harm or damage they have caused.
Brighton & Hove has been the initial test location and the scheme has had a promising start with many people already seeing positive benefits from the programme.
The taskforce have already received useful feedback from communities as to what reparative activities they would like to see offenders carry out.
Speaking about the wider launch across Sussex, PCC Katy Bourne said: “I am glad to see that the Immediate Justice scheme is now being rolled out across Sussex. I frequently talk to and hear from victims of crime and antisocial behaviour and I am pleased that they have had a voice in saying how offenders should make amends.
“Our Sussex IJ taskforce are already demonstrating positive results and they will continue to work closely with partners and Sussex Police to ensure that we are maximising every opportunity to bring offenders to justice and repair the harm caused.”
Immediate Justice Lead, Chief Inspector Andy Saville comments: "With the taskforce now in place, the delivery of Immediate Justice in Sussex will ensure offenders are held accountable for their behaviour, and services improved for victims and communities experiencing anti-social behaviour. No one should ever suffer in silence. You will be taken seriously and appropriate action taken."
You can find out more about the Sussex Immediate Justice Taskforce and some of their partners by watching a short video below:
Embedding Immediate Justice in local communities
In October, the Sussex Immediate Justice taskforce held a successful ‘Introduction to Immediate Justice’ event in Brighton, involving Sussex Police and 35 representatives of local community groups, retailers and partners, including the city council.
Repeated ASB can be corrosive to individuals and local areas, including the retail sector. That’s why the taskforce is pioneering Immediate Justice in Sussex working initially with partners in Brighton & Hove and then expanding across the county from October onwards.
At the event, Chief Inspector Andy Saville, Immediate Justice Lead for Sussex Police, introduced the concept behind the scheme and how it will be run. The Brighton & Hove Youth Offending team spoke about their work with young people and Lisa Perretta, from the Brighton & Hove Business Crime Reduction Partnership, talked about her successful restorative work with first-time shoplifters.
Event attendee Judi Lynn, from London Road Local Action Team, commented: "This scheme sounds fantastic as people do need to feel there’s a point to reporting anti-social behaviour. We should all help to promote Immediate Justice in Brighton & Hove so people know it’s happening."
You can watch a short video about the event below:
Immediate Justice in action:
Immediate Justice scheme sees offenders of ASB swiftly repair the harm and damage they have caused victims and communities.
Through utilising Out of Court Disposal options, offenders will undertake visible, practical and meaningful activities, such as graffiti removal, litter picking or maintaining public spaces.
Out of Court Disposals include:
- Conditional Cautions
- Community Resolutions
These provide a way that victims can get justice through a proportionate and meaningful process which does not require the matter going to court.
Recently, a young man from Sussex was caught graffiti-tagging on an industrial estate, damaging property and causing a negative effect on surrounding businesses, staff and members of public passing through the area.
The individual was referred by officers into the Immediate Justice Scheme and placed under the guidance of Lisa Perretta, Manager of the Brighton Business Crime Reduction Partnership. Lisa has been working within this sector for 19 years and has a wealth of experience in carrying out meaningful and educational reparative activities.
In order to get the offender to understand the harm he had caused, he was required to carry out reparative work within Brighton’s city centre.
This included litter picking and weeding public planters along North Street – an area which sees high levels of ASB in the form of littering (cigarette butts and empty drink containers) and tagging on the planters themselves.
Whilst completing the reparative activity, Lisa highlighted how the individual’s actions are harmful to communities and what effect it can have on the general public. The young man felt a strong sense of remorse for the tagging that he had carried out and found the reparative activity ‘deeply embarrassing’, putting him off repeat offending in the future. He also mentioned that his friends had been put off from tagging further, knowing that they would be held accountable for their behaviour and actions.
The outcome of this case is an extremely positive one, with the offender really understanding the harm he had caused the local community and being discouraged from tagging again in the future.
You can see and hear more about this below: