It has been tradition in many urban centers in the UK for law enforcement agents to give low attention to anti social behaviors among the society members. The law enforcement officers have primarily directed their efforts to issues that they consider to be against the law or that are “real crime”. What they fail to realize is that anti social behaviors such as drug dealing, illegal drug taking, bullying of vulnerable families, graffiti, littering and breaking windows bring about great discomfort to the society and significantly affects the society’s way of life. According to research statistics, the police receive around 3.6 million cases related to antisocial behaviour annually. This figure is in fact misleading because it does not include the cases not reported to the police or those reported to other agencies such as the city councils and social proprietors. The combination of all these cases reveals that the amount of anti social behaviour related cases in the society is very high. This issue is of great concern and it is clear that there is a huge need for the creation of a tactical plan that will address these issues maximally. It should however be noted that some of the strategies enacted earlier whereby the sole responsibility of keeping in check anti social behaviour in the society is left to the full discretion of law enforcement agencies may not work in a modern context (Jewkes and Letherby, 2002). The maintenance of safe neighborhoods in urban centers across the UK will require a shift from this traditional approach of policing to one that is more integrated and that involves full cooperation between law enforcement authorities, that is the police, the victims and the community in general. This is a very crucial policing strategy because the issues in question are usually local and tend to vary from one suburb or urban estate to another. Therefore, this paper will address tactical neighborhood policing plan that involves maximum collaboration between local professionals, the police and the community.
As mentioned earlier, this tactical plan will significantly deviate from the traditional policing approach that has been in effective because of some of its tendency to miss or leave out crucial aspects. This has been because of not involving the community. The backbone of this particular approach is local community involvement. The reason is that the local community is the one affected by anti social behaviour and it must therefore be the primary stakeholder of any tactical plan adopted (Jewkes and Letherby, 2002). In addition, the police directions and instructions from the London police offices in the city may not been tailored for the Metropolitan estate and may therefore not effectively address all of its issues. The input of the community is important because it ensures that the primary concerns of the Metropolitan Estate are addressed.
The first aspect of this tactical policing plan will be actual policing. Although the input of the local community in anti social behaviour prevention strategies is appreciated, the input of the local police agency in dealing with anti social behaviour related activities is vital (Krohn and Hall, 2012). The main reason for this is that police officers are naturally trained in dealing such issues. One of the elements of this actual policing that will be utilized is police patrol. The police will conduct regular patrols looking for any delinquents that may be engaging in antisocial behaviors and possibly arresting them or stopping them from continuing with the delinquent behaviour. This will particularly be very important in anti social behaviour such as graffiti painting and loitering. It is very likely that delinquents will cease to engage in antisocial behaviour when they aware that there are police officers waiting to pounce on them whenever they engage in anti social behaviour (Krohn and Hall, 2012). In addition, patrol offices will provide faster response avenue to anti social behaviour activity sites than those officers situated at police stations.
Apart from police patrol, another program in this tactical policing plan that is hugely related is the creation of a monitoring unit. This monitoring unit will similarly be composed of community members, elected police officers, and crime commissioners that will monitor the local law enforcement programs and ensure that they are addressing security issues related to crime and anti social behaviour in the metropolitan estate effectively. The whole idea of this monitoring unit is to mainly hold to account the local police and at the same time ensure the crime related to anti social behaviour is tackled from a local perspective (Jewkes and Letherby, 2002). This will greatly reduce the ambiguity that is usually associated with crime and anti social behaviour intervention programs not really tailored for any specific community or region. The mentioned officers and commissioners will elected by the society members and through them, the local people will indeed have an influence on local security issues management. This will without a doubt also put a lot of pressure on the local security systems to act more swiftly whenever anti social behaviour related activities such as vandalism, graffiti painting, bullying of vulnerable families and loitering are reported. In simple terms, the monitoring task force will help to keep the system in motion and ensure that they are performing to their maximum capability (Home Office, 2008).
Most perpetrators of anti social behaviour relayed activities young people and the tactical plan will consider this. Driven by peer pressure or unusual social tendencies, the young people tend to initially engage in antisocial behaviour before they later graduate to fully fledged criminal activities (Krohn and Hall, 2012). In light of this, it is clear that any tactical place claiming to deal with anti social behaviour in the society must take into consideration the youth factor. Early intervention among this age group will cut off the anti social behaviour that later leads to crime. The intervention must be done at a very early age because the young people may become immune to intervention programs if they are initiated at an advanced age. Intervention is a strength that will involve the community and the local Metropolitan Estate local council as well as the larger London city council. Several ways are in existence through which the youth helped to behave in a manner that is socially acceptable. First, the Metropolitan estate will need to erect several measure meant to divert people form anti social behaviour related activities. One of the best ways to do this is to curtail the peer group’s influence. As mentioned earlier, peer groups play a huge role in influencing people to engage in anti social behaviour related activities. Curtailing the influence of this group on Metropolitan estate youths will significantly reduce the probability of them getting into anti social behaviors. Local networks where different youths from different parts of the neighborhood can interact with various social groups and probably learn socially acceptable behaviors should be established. This will reduce the probability of the youth getting into criminal gangs. The variety of social groups will equip the youths with various social skills such as self-appreciation, focus in life amongst skills that will help them to gain positive focus on life (Krohn and Hall, 2012).
The other way to do this is to provide an alternative channel through which members of this age group can direct their energies. These may for instance include positive recreational activities such as sports. When the enthusiasm and energy of young people finds positive usage, a positive impact on their social lives results and aspects of anti social behaviour reduce significantly (Jewkes and Letherby, 2002).
In the modern context, the role of religion has slowly been diminishing but if utilized positively, religion can play a significant role in curbing antisocial behavior in the community. Religion is an exemplary community activism tool that can transform the society towards a positive direction. The Metropolitan security structure should fully harness the local religion leaders’ influence and energy in helping the local community to deal with a antisocial behaviors. This is because religion is a crucial platform for imparting social morals to residents (Home Office, 2008).
The embracement of technology will also be a key factor to this tactical plan of dealing with anti social behaviour in the Metropolitan Estate( Home Office, 2008). The installation of security gadgets such as CCTV cameras will assist in arresting or catching individual engaging in antisocial behaviors in the act. This will for example be very useful when it comes to offences such as graffiti painting, loitering and vandalism. The installation such security apparatus will significantly deter criminals from engaging in such anti social because they will be aware that their actions will be caught live on tape. In addition, the keeping of an offences database will be another crucial element of this tactical plan as it will keep a record of individuals engaging in anti social behaviour and help in the establishment of plausible intervention strategies (Krohn and Hall, 2012).
In conclusion, an effective neighborhood watch program, police patrol, a youth intervention program, religion and technology will be the key elements of this tactical neighborhood-policing plan. These elements will indeed be the pillars of the plan and will used to ensure that anti social behaviour related activities in the Metropolitan behaviors in the greater London area are curbed. Most important to the success of this program is the collaborative involvement of local residents, local professionals and the local police agency. It is only through collaborative efforts through these forces that the tactical plan will be successful. Unlike the traditional top down approach whereby law enforcers at the highest level dictate community-policing agendas, this policy plan will utilize a bottom up approach whereby anti social behaviour intervention efforts tailored to address the needs of the Metropolitan estate community will start from the grassroots.
References
Jewkes, Y., & Letherby, G. (2002). Criminology: A reader. London: SAGE.
Home Office
Krohn M, Lizotte A & Hall G (2012) Handbook on Crime and Deviance. London: Springer.
Home Office (2008) More Effective responses to Anti-Social Behaviour. London: Crown
