UK - Anti-Social Behaviour

News 21 11 2009: Anti-Social Behaviour - Drugs den shut down after two years. A CRACK house which had attracted up to 30 addicts every hour has been shut down. Police revealed they seized Class A drugs during a raid at the house last month although it finally cameafter some two years of misery for neighbouring residents. The property in Meir, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Staffordshire, UK was boarded up by police yesterday after a Judge granted an application under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. The reports included open drug exchanges in public, drug users urinating against residents' homes, and syringes and needles being discarded in the street.

 

Opinion: If it was a Motoring Offence picked up by a Speed Camera one would be awarded 3 points and a fine in about a week. 

What defines Anti-Social behaviour as brought in by Mr Blair in 1997?. Could it be about Councils using Lie detectors against the Public, about not putting one’s refuge bin out on the right day or closing the lid properly?. Could it include pensioners taking a photograph of a deserted paddling pool in a park or of tourists visiting the Country to take images back home to show what Britain is like to others?. Perhaps its about not smoking in ones own vehicle or enjoying some moderate alcohol during a “happy hour”. Of course one then has to content with a criminal records bureau (CRB) that made some 1,570 errors in the year to 2009 giving many innocent people criminal records in perhaps denying jobs. Least not forget the need to fill Gov databases such that Government statisticians have “digital matter” to apply probability transformations to in order that it be representative of living tissue having circumstances yet also agree with past Policy decisions reinforcing their correctness. Does the Government not realise that a multi-million pound Database is not worth the cost of its fuse if just one record on the storage device is found to be incorrect!. Obviously the data collected is a one-way route and where a Data Protection Act (DPA) greatly serves as a gate in protection of its integrity.

 

In the Sept the New Vetting Database cost was put at some £170,000,000 and given a £64 registration fee the cost to the NHS for 1.3 million employees will be about £83,000,000 added to which some 40,000 prison officers need to register also, costing around £2,500,000.

One attribute to digital data is shelf life as to being current as so is a Nation to be re-criminalised each year while in the meantime anti-terrorism measures be a mechanism whereby the daily long term storage of data trawled from emails, text messaging and phone calls update such recordivity as to associatability?. We blame children for not being able to write as ink from pens fill printer cartridges but what are adults to finally become if not “data inputters” to which skill be about writing digital coded instructions for others to follow!.

 

Old News

05 12 2007: UKDNA database errors raise concerns.The largest DNA database in the world covering details on about 4.5 million people including information on every person arrested, convicted or not, and on 900 000 children raises questions as inaccuracies and administrative errors have been found in its records. Incorrect dates, spelling mistakes and duplications have been found by Data Quality and Integrity Team of the DNA database unit. In August 2007 statistics released by the Home Office (HO) were showing around 550 000 files with wrongly recorded or miss spelt names. The director of civil rights group Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, considered it was already bad that the database included innocent people which had never been charged, many children and a large percentage of ethnic minorities. "Now it turns out we don't know the accuracy of the data. How many Postman Pats and Donald Ducks have entries on a system worthy of the Keystone Cops?" she commented. John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley and an Internet entrepreneur who is investigating the reasons of the occurrence of so many errors stated: "It is important that people recognise Government databases are not necessarily 100 per cent accurate (...) It is quite clear you can't trust the Government with your personal information.

 

10 12 2007 Group criticises Asbos. The Government's flagship Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) are creating a culture that encourages children into crime, according to a think-tank. Asbos were one of Tony Blair's highest-profile initiatives after coming to office in 1997. The scope of the idea has since grown steadily, with individuals being banned from specific streets, whole town centres, and even from "parking selfishly". However, there has been criticism that the orders are draconian, applied inconsistently across the country, and slapped on children as young as 10. The Institute for Public Policy Reform (ippr) says Britain is in danger of becoming a nation fearful of its young people: a nation of paedophobics.

 

27 12 2007 Police staff disc found at dump. A police chief has apologised after confidential staff data was found in a dump. The personal information included names, addresses, telephone numbers, ranks and qualifications such as firearms or drug-testing skills of Devon and Cornwall Police employees.

 

08 05 2008 Plans to tackle anti-social conduct Officials from housing benefits officers to TV licence inspectors are to be enlisted in the fight against anti-social behaviour, under plans unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. In a keynote speech in London, Ms Smith called for "better joined up working" by the police, local councils and other statutory authorities to expose the wider criminal activities of the most persistent offenders. Smith said. "The Government is firmly on the side of communities where people have had enough and there will be no escape for persistent offenders.

 

12 05 2008 Councils using lie detectors. After successful trials at seven councils, anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt announced last week that the scheme would be extended. The technology is already being used to identify people making fraudulent benefit claims and to spot people who are "pulling a sickie" from work. Now employers have given a cautious welcome to the idea of using the Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) system to identify people who may be lying.

 

31 05 2008 Police force to use “common sense”. A leading police chief has given notice his force would not pursue "misleading" Whitehall targets, but allow officers to better prioritise their time. In a move which is apparently backed by three other constabularies, the head of Surrey Police said he wanted to return to "common sense policing".

 

14 06 2008 Stop the bin inspectors and get fined £5000. The fines could be levied on anybody who bars entry to their property or obstructs a town hall official, or who "fails or refuses to provide facilities or assistance or any ­information". Householders who refuse to let council inspectors look into their rubbish bins could be fined up to £5,000 and earn a criminal record, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

 

19 07 2008 Police advise member of the Public to dispose of a murder weapon. A police force has launched a review after a member of the public was told to dispose of a knife found days after the murder of a father of three. The finder of the weapon said that the Police operator was very dismissive to his astonishment. He was then told to dispose of the weapon because there was no “free patrols”. It took another call before a CID Officer turned up!.

 

23 07 2008 Apology to pool photo pensioners.Southampton City Council has apologised to Betty Robinson, 82, and Brenda Bennett, 69, whom were taking pictures of a parks deserted paddling pool. They were ordered to stop by a female worker over fears about child protection. Mrs Robinson said: "It's pathetic, bureaucracy gone mad.". "I said is it because we might be paedophiles?. "We are just a couple of old ladies who wouldn't hurt children and we are certainly not paedophiles.".

 

25 07 2008 Handyman fined for smoking in van. A painter and decorator who received a £30 fine for smoking in his own van has warned that British civil liberties are "going up in smoke".

 

03 08 2008 The £110 fine for overfilling your binHouseholders are to face on-the-spot fines of more than £75 and up to £110 for overfilling their bins, the Government has instructed local authorities - a more severe penalty than the £80 fine that police often hand out to those guilty of drunk and disorderly conduct and shoplifters. Offences for which the spotfines can be imposed include leaving a wheelie bin lid ajar, putting the bin out on the wrong night or leaving it in the wrong place. Earlier this year a bus driver from Whitehaven was confronted by inspectors, from Copeland Borough Council in Cumbria, wearing stab-proof vests and armed with photographic evidence of his crime. He was given a criminal conviction after being taken to court when he refused to hand over a £110-on-the-spot fine by council inspectors, who found the lid of his wheelie bin open by four inches. He remarked: "It's only an £80 fine for fly-tipping!”.

 

22 11 2008 Ministers 'set to ban happy hour'. Ministers are set to ban happy hours in pubs and clubs as part of a crack down on binge-drinking, it has been claimed.

 

09 01 2009 Have your say on policing - Peter Nurse RESIDENTS can have their say on crime in their towns at a Cheshire Police Authority meeting. Nantwich.Chairman of the authority Peter Nurse said: "These public meetings are an important way for people to tell us how policing services are delivered. Some three years prior Mr Nurse attended a meeting on a Housing Estate joining Council Officials and the Police however his late arrival was met with a premature ending as the Police rushed outside the building to deal with a gang of youths chanting in the knowledge that such a meeting was taking place. The Public voiced their anger at Mr Nurse while an Officer unfolded a credit card style holder revealing a long list of phone numbers in response to residents who said they call the Police yet no response be gained for days.

 

16 04 2009 A 69 year old tourist told to delete pictures – Anti-terrorism. Like most visitors to London, Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris took several photographs of some of the city's sights, including the famous red double-decker buses. More unusually perhaps, they also took pictures of the Vauxhall bus station, which Matzka regards as "modern sculpture". But the tourists have said they had to return home to Vienna without their holiday pictures after two policemen forced them to delete the photographs from their cameras in the name of preventing terrorism. Matkza, a 69-year-old retired television cameraman with a taste for modern architecture, was told that photographing anything to do with transport was "strictly forbidden". The policemen also recorded the pair's details, including passport numbers and hotel addresses. "Google Street View is allowed to show any details of our cities on the world wide web," he said. "But a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of famous London landmarks.". He said he would not return to London again after the incident

 

03 08 2009 The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) made 1,570 errors in the 12 months to the end of March giving many innocent people criminal records. The CRB - an Home Office Agency set up in March 2002. Shadow minister for immigration Damian Green said the figures were "very disturbing".

 

11 09 2009 Vetting database - £170m. The Government's controversial vetting database will cost the British public at least £170m, The Independent can disclose. The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), which comes into force next month and is intended to prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults, has already cost the Government £84m to set up. Now, public bodies such as the NHS and the Prison Service will be forced to spend millions of pounds registering their employees on the scheme, at a time when their budgets have already been squeezed. Anyone who wants to work with children or vulnerable adults must pay a mandatory, one-off registration fee of £64. Almost all of the NHS's 1.3 million employees will have to join, leaving the organisation facing a total bill of about £83m. Prisoners are also classed as vulnerable adults, so the country's 40,000 registered prison officers will also need to register. The Prison Service has agreed to meet their registration costs, which amount to more than £2.5m.

 

13 10 2009 New tough targets to deal with yobs.Police and councils will be set tough new targets on dealing with anti-social behaviour, Home Secretary Alan Johnson is due to announce. Mr Johnson will write to chief constables and council leaders insisting that they do their job. Mr Johnson said on Sunday: "We're not looking to introduce new legislation. We're looking at making the existing measures work better." Since 1997, the Government has passed a wide array of anti-social behaviour laws, but the focus shifted away from the problem when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.