10:50am Monday 15th March 2010
By Matthew Colledge
Bridgwater police have launched a new initiative to tackle antisocial behaviour.
A car, staffed by two PCSOs, is patrolling Bridgwater's streets on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, responding solely to calls about anti-social behaviour.
Bridgwater is the first sector in Somerset to launch the ASB car scheme, which aims to reassure residents that complaints about issues including noisy neighbours and intimidating groups of youths are taken seriously, and to speed up response times.
Calls about such incidents made to the police non-emergency number or Sedgemoor District Council's antisocial behaviour hotline are logged as antisocial behaviour, and immediately passed on to the ASB car team.
Sgt Andy Smith, who implemented the scheme in Bridgwater, said: “Staff are then dispatched.
“On route they will phone the complainant giving an update as to their time of arrival and to reassure the complainant that they are on route and dealing with the incident in a positive way. “The informant will then be updated as to what actions the PCSOs have taken.”
Kristy Blackwell, community safety officer with Sedgemoor District Council, which is supporting the scheme, said the ASB car would “enhance the excellent partnership working already taking place to tackle antisocial behaviour.”
Insp Shane Carey, of Bridgwater police, stressed the ASB car had launched in Bridgwater before a report published last week by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary Denis O'Connor, which criticised police forces across the country for the way they dealt with antisocial behaviour.
Insp Carey said the ASB car had already met with a favourable response in Bridgwater.
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