Pledge to keep anti-social police crackdown in Essex going

Roger Hirst, the police and crime commissioner for Essex, says the crackdown on anti-social behaviour has been a success

A police, fire and crime commissioner says he will try to find more money to continue a scheme cracking down on anti-social behaviour.

Essex Police received £1.1m this year to increase patrols - and anti-social behaviour has dropped significantly.

Conservative Commissioner Roger Hirst said he was looking at ways to continue funding the scheme.

But Labour councillor for Southend-on-Sea, Aston Line, said police numbers had been cut by 20,000 since the 2010s.

Police patrol Moulsham Street in Chelmsford as part of the anti-social hotspot crackdown

Essex Police said that between October 2022 and October 2023 crime in Essex was down 6.5% - from 166,661 reported incidents in 2022 to 155,783 reported incidents in 2023.

Anti-social behaviour in Essex was down 37% - 24,604 reported incidents in 2022 compared to 15,501 reported incidents in 2023.

Anti-social behaviour such as shop-lifting is being tackled

Eleven anti-social behaviour hotspots across Essex were chosen for high-visibility patrols as part of a policing trial in July based on crime data from the last five years and feedback from the public and police partner organisations.

They included the Percy King Estate area, Greenstead and Cowdray Avenue areas of Colchester, Moulsham Street in Chelmsford, Railway Square in Brentwood, Stow shopping centre in Harlow and Maple Square and Southchurch Road in Southend.

Beat officer Insp Sam Girdlestone said the scheme had seen several arrests, stop and searches and fixed penalty notices issued

Beat officer Insp Sam Girdlestone told the BBC that since the scheme started in Moulsham Street, there had been [to 31 October] six arrests, 21 stop and searches, 16 informal warnings - and seven fixed penalty notices issued.

Insp Girdlestone said: "Moulsham Steet is our hotspot location for anti-social behaviour - it can be youths, congregating and causing problems for shopkeepers, or people committing shoplifting offences from some of our shops and supermarkets, or drug dealing or aggressive begging."

Mr Hirst said: "We needed to try things [to cut anti-social behaviour].

"The government was happy to fund things so you can afford to try it."

When the £1.1m government grant runs out, he vowed: "I will find some money. It might be from council tax, or more government funding, or from savings, to make sure we continue these things and continue to make them work."

Eleven neighbourhoods in Essex were chosen based on crime data for the last five years

Mr Line, who is set to become the Labour candidate for Southend West at the next general election, told BBC Politics East: "The lived experience of many of our residents across the region will not be that anti-social behaviour is getting a lot better.

"My residents will say policing has become entirely reactive and not pro-active.

"People don't remember when they last saw a bobby on the beat."