ASB- low ... so why are we taking part in a project that can only make Boston look bad ... ?

It seemed to us that the announcement that Boston is to be one of only four areas in the country to take part in a six-month anti-social behaviour “trigger” trial, was made almost with pride when it appeared in the latest  Boston Borough Council Bulletin.

And something that surprised us was that - according to the news reports which accompanied Home Secretary Theresa May’s announcement - the trials were scheduled for just three areas ... Manchester, Brighton and Hove and West Lindsey.
But now Boston has appeared as if by magic – and earned yet another badge of dishonour to add to all the other unwanted associations that the borough “enjoys” – or rather endures.
Even more surprising is why Lincolnshire should be included in this exercise at all.
The system on trial will replace anti-social behaviour orders - which have been available in England and Wales since April 1999.
But although statistics are patchy, figures show that between then and the end of December 2008 just 77 ASBOs were issued in the whole of Lincolnshirev - placing the county third from the bottom of the list pictured below.

click on photo to enlarge it

If the pilot scheme is adopted, ASBOs will be replaced in Englandand Wales by two orders: the Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) and a Crime Prevention Injunction (CPI) which will have lower standards of proof and could be put in place in days or even hours.
The CBO … already nicknamed a Crimbo ... will be used against people convicted of crime, whilst the CPI is a civil order similar to existing ASBOs - but available at an earlier stage of bad behaviour and easier and faster to use.
A "community trigger" will force police, councils and agencies to act if five households  complain. We don’t know whether Boston had any say in the dubious distinction of piloting this project – but we would have hoped that if there had been an option to refuse that we would have taken it.
Although the recommendation is for a trigger of five complaints about inaction to spark an investigation, Boston Borough Council’s anti-social behaviour team is to enforce a trigger of three – three complaints from an individual, or three individual complaints from a neighbourhood about the same behaviour within a 12-month period where it can be shown that no action has been taken.
Presumably, this is to make it appear as though they are taking the problem more seriously – but it will, of course serve to skew the figures, as taking action after three complaints rather than five will generate more court orders than other areas where the recommended five is the benchmark.
Consequently, Boston will appear to be worse than it really is.
And we don’t know yet whether Lincolnshire Police will adopt a trigger of three, or five. But if they toe the  Home Office line then it will be the latter – which will further confuse things.
Well done, team.
According to Councillor Stephen Woodliffe, Boston’s portfolio holder for community safety, this initiative should help curb anti-social behaviour by encouraging the public to report such offences.
“Hopefully, this new scheme will reduce the number of instances of anti-social behaviour and help strengthen public confidence."
So, reporting more cases reduces the amount?
Peter Hunn, the council’s principal community safety officer, said Boston’s inclusion in the trial came about because of its involvement in other ground-breaking initiatives such as the ASB Challenge to help victims of anti-social behaviour, and a pilot for Families Working Together, an intensive programme to help challenging families.
Yet the figures show that anti-social behaviour - at least where it is controlled by court order - is among the lowest in the country.
So why are we so deeply immersed in something that apparently does not give us too much grief?
Dante’s Inferno envisaged nine Circles of Hell.
Had he known then what we know now, he could have added Boston as a tenth.

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