Covid-19: Knowsley Council links anti-social behaviour rise to rule breaches

Knowsley has seen some of the highest Covid-19 infection rates in England

A 50% rise in anti-social behaviour incidents across Knowsley in the past year has been put down to breaches of Covid-19 rules in a council report.

The report said while overall crime fell by 2% between 2019/20 and 2020/21, anti-social behaviour soared.

Knowsley's head of community safety Ian Willman told councillors many of the 1,540 offences were "around breaches which wouldn't happen in other years".

"We were dealing with something never seen before," he added.

The report to the council's sustainable borough scrutiny committee stated 13,266 crimes were reported in 2020/21, more than 200 fewer than in the previous year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Alongside the rise in anti-social behaviour, which accounted for just under 12% of all crimes reported, it also stated that:

• Knowsley had the lowest percentage of overall crimes in the Liverpool City Region in 2020/21, accounting for 10% of all crime across the area

• Violence and sexual offences made up the largest percentage of crimes in Knowlsey, accounting for almost 40% of all reported

• Criminal damage and arson had the second highest percentage, accounting for about 14% of all crimes recorded

• Knowsley's crime rate per 10,000 people was slightly below the regional average at 88 per 10,000, compared with 112 in Liverpool and 70 in Wirral

It added that it was "envisaged" that anti-social behaviour would "reduce to levels seen in previous years in 2021/22".

The borough employed compliance officers to ensure businesses were sticking to Covid-19 rules

Addressing the committee, Mr Willman said the borough was "right in the middle of Covid, and many complaints were around breaches which wouldn't happen in other years and they were classified as anti-social behaviour".

"We were dealing with something never seen before, so that accounted for the large increase," he added.

Responding to a councillor's subsequent question about whether the increase was a reporting issue, Merseyside Police's Temp Supt Phil Mullally said due to how crimes were recorded on "a national level... you've got a set of data which ultimately doesn't tell the picture, so you have to treat with caution and almost discount".

However, he admitted the recording of non-Covid related crimes was "not perfect", but added that he was "confident that when it comes to recording of crime and data, we're in a good place as a force".