Agenda item

A report by the Anti Sociall Behaviour Officer

The Community Safety Officer presented the report confirming it provided members with an update on the two new security measures recently commenced for Central Park.   Security measure 1 being the locking of Central Park during the hours of darkness (timings agreed by members at the August meeting this year) and of which commenced on the 6^th September 2021.

Security measure 2 being the additional CCTV operator to monitor BTAC assets including Central Park, other green open spaces and assets within the market place.

A brief referral to incidents followed which included notification of:

6^th July 2021 – 6^th September 2021.  

Total calls to Police  - 33

‘Daytime’ calls (05:30 – 20:00 hours) – 27

Within future closure hours (20:00 – 05:30 hours) – 6

Of the 6 incidents after 8pm:

1 x ASB, noise nuisance.

1 x call by Fire for deliberate ignition, crimed  as Arson (to a container)

1 x criminal damage to doctor’s surgery (called in by Fire dealing with above). Male threw stone and smashed window.

1 x male extremely drunk believed lost in the area.

2 x common assaults, both by youths on other youths, both offenders well known to Police, both crimes. One victim refused to make any allegations, one was dealt for breach of civil injunction.

6^th September 2021 to 3^rd November 2021.

Total calls to Police – 11

‘Daytime’ calls (05:30 20:00 hours) – 9

Within closure hours (20:00 – 05:30 hours) – 2

Of those 2 incidents within the locked times:

21/9/21 @ 21:52hrs - caller (member of the public) rang FCR (Force Control Room) stating that there were 3 youths climbing the fence. CCTV were made aware to monitor the area, nothing seen.

23/9/21 @ 20:28hrs - Male in park refusing to leave (called in by security). Police attended and the male was arrested for theft, which had taken place in a retail premises earlier.

4^th November 2021 – 3^rd January 2022

Total calls to Police –  7

‘Daytime’ calls (05:30 20:00 hours) – 7

Within closure hours (20:00 Until 20^th December – 05:30 hours) – 0

Within closure hours (18:00 From 21^st December – 05:30 hours) – 0

Addressing CCTV data period the following information was provided:

The data referred to the period between the 1^st of November 2021, and the 1^st January 2022.  All CCTV related data is obtained via VTAS which is the data base software for logging CCTV activities.

In the November – December period, CCTV operators worked 123 hours for the purpose of monitoring BTAC areas in CCTV.

The BTAC CCTV Operator position was vacant during this time, so regular CCTV operators were utilised when they were available for extra work.

Of the 39 BTAC shifts available for the period of this report, 17 were covered, and 22 could not be covered.

Due to this the available data was limited, due to the difficulty in separating it from the rest of the CCTV data.

During the November – December period CCTV operators also logged 5 incidents using cameras covering BTAC concerns.  A brief summary of these is provided below.

The previous report had highlighted issues with CCTV operator recruitment. The BTAC specific role remained vacant, along with 3 other CCTV vacancies.  The Council was recruiting again, due to the withdrawal of people who had previously received job offers from the Council.

The recruitment process would continue in the hope of having the control room fully staffed, however it was likely that devoting resources to BTAC specific monitoring would be limited until the CCTV Suite had appropriate staffing levels.

Inspector Harrod voiced her support of the scheme stating that the number of daytime calls had decreased due to the lack of damage nuisance incidents occurring in the evening.  The police had not needed to draw the emergency key in response to any incident, but had on occasion done so to proactively to patrol the park in the hours of darkness and ensure all was well, in addition to combatting anti-social behaviour and damage around the Centenary Church.  Despite initial negativity by some people saying that people would still break in during the closing hours, it had not happened and clearly closing the gates had worked well for everyone including the neighbours of the park.  Furthermore and more importantly, the Police had been able to free up officers no longer having to attend the ongoing calls to the park and use their resources in other areas of the wider town including in youth ASP.

Member comment and questioning followed which included:

Generally Members agreed the closure of the gates had been a success not only for the police with the reduction in calls to the site, but also to neighbouring residents, some of whom had been very vocal on social media about the improvement in their lives with the reduction of nuisance and anti- social behaviour within the park.  A Member voiced his thanks to Councillor Neill Hastie who had been prominent in BTAC finally agreeing the closure of the gates. 

Referencing his concerns at the time of agreeing the closure and the resulting loss of amenity, one Member stated he felt reassured that the committee had agreed the closing hours at that point. Noting the reduction in incidents and anti-social behaviour within the park, a Member asked if there had been a displacement of that activity to other areas within the town and also enquired if the loss of the CCTV operator had impacted in anyway.   Inspector Harrod advised that CCTV continued to work well and that whilst a displacement of activity had been anticipated, closing down the park at night had actually closed down an area of the town which had been difficult to control and it had also taken away the casual nuisance in the early hours.

Whilst there was a cohort of troubled individuals within the town, incidents were now in areas that were far easier to control.

In summary the Chairman recognised the success of the closure which he agreed had been very successful and well received by residents of BTAC.  Clearly when the park was opened until later during the summer months, the situation could change but overall the outcome had been a positive one and the decision had been a good one by the committee.