Police dispersal orders 'just a sticking plaster'

CONTROVERSIAL police powers aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour merely shift problems to nearby areas and act only as a "sticking plaster" for deeper social problems, research carried out in Sheffield claimed today.
Dispersal orders, which allow police to break up intimidating groups of people from pre-designated zones, have created an increase in crime in neighbouring areas, notably criminal damage, by up to 83 per cent according to the first major study of the dispersal orders.

The orders did produce a short-term reduction in crime in the problem areas, in one area crime fell 39 per cent but sometimes this was only for the duration of the order, the study, which focused on Leeds and Sheffield, said.

Professor Adam Crawford, of the

Centre for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Leeds, said: “Unless dispersal orders are part of a wider, multi-agency strategy to provide alternative activities and venues for young people, the powers merely put a sticking plaster over local problems of order and invariably fail to address the wider causes of perceived anti-social behaviour.”