The Crime & Disorder Act 1998 defines Anti Social Behaviour as acting:
‘In a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as the perpetrator’.
Walsall Council's Anti Social Behaviour Unit understands that each case of anti social behaviour is unique and will consider each individual case on its own merit. However, there are certain types of behaviour that the unit will always consider as anti social. These include:
Environment issues (litter, fly tipping,dog fouling, graffiti etc)
Noise nuisance (shouting, loud music etc)
Intimidation and harassment (malicious phone calls etc)
Aggressive and threatening behaviour (making threats, using verbal or physical threats etc)
Violence or threat of violence against a person or property (actual criminal damage, arson, graffiti etc)
Hate behaviour that targets people because of perceived differences. (Any behaviour that is seen to be due to ethnicity, gender, disability, age, religion etc).
Working in partnership
The Safer Walsall Partnership holds a series of regular meetings (delivery groups) attended by a variety of council departments, statutory and voluntary sector agencies and landlords. The delivery groups cover a wide range of issues that directly affect the residents of Walsall.
These include racial harassment, domestic abuse, drugs & alcohol, business crime, environmental issues, young people, persistent offenders etc. The Anti Social Behaviour Unit has access to all of these groups and works in partnership with others to address specific concerns within the community.