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An innovative Leicestershire Police pilot scheme designed to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) has shown promising results, reducing ASB by 39% in the areas it was implemented.
Leicestershire Police is working with local health and social care service provider, Turning Point, to deploy ‘Street Outreach’ workers in priority areas in Leicester City Centre.
The pilot scheme is testing the concept that non-uniform outreach youth workers can engage, tackle, advise and divert vulnerable young people from ASB or committing crime in the city centre.
The street outreach team patrol the priority areas in pairs between 2pm – 8pm on a five-day shift pattern. They have time to engage with young people in the city; have a meaningful and detailed conversation about their circumstances and refer them on to other services if relevant.
The initial evaluation of the project, which has been carried out by the Cambridge Centre for Evidence Based Policing (CCEBP), has proved so positive that the funding has been extended until March 2025. The project has been running for two years.
Inspector Mark Brennan from the Prevention and Problem Solving Hub said, “We know that policing isn’t the only solution to preventing crime – it needs a partnership approach to tackle the issues that may lead someone to commit crime in the first place. The demand on police resources means officers don’t always have the time to get to the root causes of a young person’s issues and find a way to resolve them, but a team of specialist youth workers do have the right credibility and contacts to do that, as this pilot has shown.
“Officers are of course still patrolling the city centre but we’re the first force in the country to work with detached youth workers in this way and have shown that a blended model of patrolling youth workers and police officers can make a difference. We’re beginning to get interest from other forces about the pilot and the College of Policing has added it to their practice bank.”
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