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Clive Martin

In November, the first ever police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections will take place. The government have billed the elections as the start of a new era in crime prevention that puts the public 'back in the driving seat'. The introduction of PCCs has the potential to provide a window of opportunity for voluntary and community organisations working in the field of crime prevention and community safety.

The voluntary, community and social enterprise sector needs to be at the centre of the PCC conversation. Our grassroots organisations have unrivalled connections to people on the margins of society - people who often don't vote in elections but who are most affected by community safety issues. The sector has priceless, in-depth local knowledge and frontline experience of what works and what doesn't work in local communities - PCCs must make the most of this. But what will the introduction of PCCs mean in practice? And how can the sector be involved and ensure our voices are heard?

Once in post, the elected PCCs will be accountable for the way crime is tackled in their police force area and responsible for setting out community safety priorities in their police and crime plans and for community safety budgets to support those priorities.

From April 2013, our sector will start to see changes to the way community safety activities are funded. Most existing funding streams will come to an end and the new PCCs will be able to access a community safety fund for 2013, from which they can make crime and disorder grants to fund or commission services, such as those from our sector.

PCCs will be able to use these funds at their discretion to fund or commission any activity to improve community safety and support their police and crime plans. This might include supporting victims, reducing reoffending, work to address violence against women and girls, substance misuse or work with young people.

We all know that many of the community organisations in our sector already work day in, day out with these groups and so should be prime candidates to benefit from these changes. One example of an organisation already working to reduce crime in the local area is Clinks . Member WomenCentre Calderdale and Kirklees runs an Evolve project in West Yorkshire working with around 300 women at risk of reoffending each year. Working in partnership with the West Yorkshire probation service to offer an alternative to custodial sentences, the charity provides individual tailor-made support packages to help the women address their complex and diverse issues as well as to build their confidence and self-esteem.

The reoffending rate for women involved with the Evolve project is 10% after one year - almost five times lower than the national average. The return on investment for the project equates to over £6 for each £1 spent. By working with organisations like WomenCentre Calderdale and Kirklees, the PCCs will be reducing crime while delivering a tangible return on investment.

However, all budgets are reducing across government meaning overall funding for community safety, reducing reoffending and substance misuse will be lower in 2013-14 than in 2012-13. The community safety fund will not be ringfenced and it will be up to each individual PCC to decide how these funds are used, what proportion is used to address which issue and which partners they choose to work with. In addition from 2014 funding for community safety activity will not be separate from the PCCs general policing budget. Organisations wanting to make the most of the changes will need to ensure the PCC in their area is fully aware of the benefits they offer.

The good news is that the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector is not hanging around. Safer Future Communities is a network of organisations that has come together at national and local level to make the most of the changing crime commissioning landscape and to support organisations across our sector to position themselves in the new commissioning landscape. Safer future communities has developed a joint "Offer to PCCs" document - which explains how the sector can be both a partner and a critical friend to police and crime commissioners - it is well worth a look.

Through the local safer future communities networks this is being distributed to all election candidates to spell out how we can help them connect with local communities, reduce crime and ultimately keep communities safe. This really is an important time for the sector. It is a major opportunity to position our work right at the heart of local efforts to tackle crime, and the causes of crime, in our communities.
Clive Martin is director of Clinks, which is leading the safer future communities partnership. You can find out more about safer future communities and the work done by Clinks This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To join the voluntary sector network, click here.. Topics

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How communities can work with the new police commissioners

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Clive Martin In November, the first ever police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections will take place. The government have billed the elections as the start of a new era in crime prevention that puts the public 'back in the driving seat'.

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Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

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Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

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Anita Pati

ummer's disturbances showed how town centre CCTV can be instrumental in identifying troublemakers to the police. Speaking at a recent conference, Rose Fitzpatrick, deputy assistant commissioner of central operations at the Metropolitan police, said tthey needed, "to work more effectively with local authorities to use imagery such as CCTV systems".

There are an estimated 30,000 publicly-owned CCTV cameras in England and Wales, according to joint research carried out this year by the CCTV User Group and Graeme Gerrard, deputy chief constable of Cheshire constabulary.

But 80% of these town and city centre cameras are run and paid for by councils, whose budget cuts are now affecting CCTV monitoring, according to the user group. And while the remainder may be located in police stations, it is still mainly councils that pay.

"In general terms, the police pay virtually nothing to the authorities' costs in running the public area CCTV systems," says Peter Fry, director of the CCTV User Group, whose membership includes CCTV managers and police liaison officers.

Fry is concerned that crime may go undetected if cuts continue to be made to monitoring services, especially as providing CCTV is not a statutory duty. While he believes that "less than a handful" of local authority cameras have actually been switched off, "a great many authorities seeking cuts have adopted reduced monitoring hours, ie the cameras are not monitored during non-peak times. This means that while images are recorded, there is no one there to zoom in or track a suspect."

Fry also fears councils are losing many experienced CCTV managers through early retirement, redundancy and the appointment of non-specialists. He says councils "always feel the police should pay more" towards cameras.

Council cuts

In October, Devon and Cornwall police withdrew all its CCTV liaison officers - a role which includes reviewing and downloading CCTV - leaving four police posts redundant. A police spokesman said officers would carry out the function on an ad-hoc basis, working closely with councils. But Fry says Devon and Cornwall's decision is a "drastic false economy". "This is not a lone instance but occurring in several areas," he says.

Cornwall council cut its CCTV budget by £350,000 from April 2011. It operates 143 public CCTV cameras at a cost of £260,000 per year, with a further 43 run by individual town councils with their own budgets. Most of the cameras were inherited 15 years ago when money was made available for CCTV by the Labour government through crime and disorder reduction partnerships and all are in town centres.

All cameras were monitored around the clock until April 2011 when cuts reduced monitoring to peak times only - mainly evenings and late nights- in consultation with the police. While crime in Cornwall is relatively low, there are hotspots in town centres such as Newquay.

David George, Cornwall's crime and disorder reduction officer, says the main users of images are the police who act either when a crime is reported to them in an area covered by a camera or when people monitoring spot crimes occurring.

George has regular meetings with the police CCTV liaison officer to ensure close working but says, "the police don't contribute anything financially. What they do is provide two of the monitoring premises where cameras are situated and allow us to use them rent-free." Cornwall's elected members would like a financial contribution.

Before monitoring was reduced in April, police requested council footage approximately 40 times a month, but this has now dropped to 24 times a month. "Local opinion is that police officers, being aware that monitoring had ceased, felt that the system was less effective and incidents/crimes were less likely to have been recorded," George says.

"My opinion - and I cannot qualify this without requesting further analysis - is that where recorded crime has fallen, it corresponds with reduced monitoring and that is due to there being no CCTV operators to witness the crime and therefore generate a crime record."

Despite reduced CCTV services, Fry believes that corresponding financial pressures on the police mean "partnership between the CCTV operation and the police is absolutely critical to the effectiveness of any public area CCTV system".

Working in partnership

Bristol city council has a strong partnership with its local police. It owns around 200 CCTV cameras, footage from which the police can instantly download from their control rooms. Police also work from council control rooms during peak times.

During summer's riots, the cameras proved very useful: 127 individuals were caught on camera, leading to 88 charges. But the police does not fund the CCTV; the service is largely funded by contracting out CCTV support to other councils.

Peter Anderson, crime and substance misuse services manager at Bristol, says the CCTV footage has proved vital in deterring or helping convict criminals: "In the last month, it's been central in gaining convictions in a murder trial and against a group of people tampering with ATM machines," he explains.

Deputy chief constable Graeme Gerrard, CCTV lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers, says CCTV plays a major part in the way the force investigates crime. But he does not believe the police should fund the service.

"We have our own expenses associated with CCTV," he says - these include recovery, viewing and formatting of images, including those collected from private CCTV and pursuing offenders - "my budget is being reduced as well as theirs."

However, Gerrard agrees both parties could work more closely. "The police service needs to improve the feedback it gives CCTV control rooms," he says. CCTV operators who have witnessed assaults, for instance, would benefit on both personal and professional levels if they could see how helpful the footage had been, he says.

This, he believes, would also help councils build business cases to fund CCTV which may be a way forward in the current economic climate.
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Join the local government network for more comment and analysis - and the latest jobs - direct to your inbox Topics

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Is community safety at risk as cash-strapped councils cut CCTV?

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Anita Pati ummer's disturbances showed how town centre CCTV can be instrumental in identifying troublemakers to the police. Speaking at a recent conference, Rose Fitzpatrick, deputy assistant commissioner of central operations at the Metropolitan police, said tthey needed, "to work more effectively with local authorities to use imagery such as CCTV systems".

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Managing Collective Violence,

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Contextual and Individual Factors Determining Escalation of Collective Violence: Case Study of the Project X Riot in Haren, the Netherlands | The British Journal of Criminology | Oxford Academic

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Two dominant perspectives explaining collective violence differ in the extent to which they ascribe influence to individual and contextual factors. Our analysis of a project X disorder in the Netherlands shows organized groups were not involved. Instead spontaneous group formation and identification were observed, confirming socio-contextual theory.

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Haroon Siddique

Images captured on a household surveillance camera could breach data-protection rules if the person filmed was on a public footpath when videoed, the European court of justice (ECJ) has ruled.

By clarifying European legislation, the judgment could have significant consequences for householders in the UK who use CCTV and keep or try to use the images, according to a legal expert.

The case related to a Czech man, František Ryneš, who installed a surveillance camera after he and his family were subjected to attacks by unknown individuals. The camera filmed areas including a public footpath and the entrance to the house opposite.

After someone fired a catapult at his home, breaking a window, Ryneš gave the recordings to the police, allowing them to identify two suspects, who were subsequently prosecuted.

However, one of the suspects challenged the legality of Ryneš recording and holding the images. The Czech office for the protection of personal data, found that although Ryneš had been trying to expose the perpetrators of a crime, he had infringed data-protection rules and issued him with a fine.

Ryneš appealed against the ruling and the supreme administrative court in the Czech Republic referred the case to the ECJ, asking whether European data-protection directive rules on the processing of personal data applied.

The court decided Ryneš was not liable for a fine because he had acted to help prosecute a criminal. However, the judgment suggested that if a crime had not been committed he would have breached European data regulations. The directive has an exception in the case of data processing carried out "by a natural person in the course of a purely personal or household activity", but the court found that the exception would not always apply if a camera is recording images of a public space such as a footpath.

The judges said: "The operation of a camera system, as a result of which a video recording of people is stored on a continuous recording device such as a hard disk drive, installed by an individual on his family home for the purposes of protecting the property, health and life of the homeowners, but which also monitors a public space, does not amount to the processing of data in the course of a purely personal or household activity, for the purposes of that provision."

This contradicts the application of the directive in the UK. Kathryn Wynn, senior associate at Pinsent Masons, said the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) had always taken the view that a camera on someone's house was outside of the law.

Householders who have surveillance cameras that capture public space would have to put up a notice informing people they are being filmed and make sure footage was not unduly retained, she said.

"The overarching concern is if you have two neighbours in dispute and one installs CCTV to capture their neighbour doing whatever they are complaining about, the other will run off to the ICO and complain about use of the film," she said. "The ICO will start to get pulled into domestic property disputes." However, she emphasised that the ruling made it clear that footage of criminal activity could still be used.

An ICO spokesman said: "We are just considering the ruling and what implications might have."
Topics

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Home surveillance CCTV images may breach data protection laws, ECJ rules

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Haroon Siddique Images captured on a household surveillance camera could breach data-protection rules if the person filmed was on a public footpath when videoed, the European court of justice (ECJ) has ruled. By clarifying European legislation, the judgment could have significant consequences for householders in the UK who use CCTV and keep or try to use the images, according to a legal expert.

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Leadership of mayors and governors during crises (hoek van Holland)

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Leadership of mayors and governors during crises (hoek van Holland)

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Forum Article

Authors

Wouter Jong,

1. INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

2. Dutch Association of Mayors (Nederlands Genootschap van Burgemeesters), The Hague, The Netherlands

Search for more papers by this author

Michel L. A. Dückers,

Impact - National Knowledge and Advice Centre for Psychosocial Care Concerning Critical Incidents, Partner in Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group, Diemen, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this author

Peter G. van der Velden

INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this author

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on leadership tasks and effectiveness of mayors and governors during drastic collective events. A total of 34 peer-reviewed articles met our criteria. They were analysed using the theoretical framework by Boin on leadership tasks, i.e., sense making, decision making, meaning making, terminating, and learning. Studies ranged from minor incidents like local riots, to the events of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The material turned out to be dominated by Western and American studies. Because of limitations in the empirical and knowledge base of the studies, it is difficult to draw general conclusions on what is supposed to be effective leadership by mayors and/or governors in these circumstances.

Forum Article

Authors

Wouter Jong,

1. INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

2. Dutch Association of Mayors (Nederlands Genootschap van Burgemeesters), The Hague, The Netherlands

Search for more papers by this author

Michel L. A. Dückers,

Impact - National Knowledge and Advice Centre for Psychosocial Care Concerning Critical Incidents, Partner in Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group, Diemen, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this author

Peter G. van der Velden

INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this author

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on leadership tasks and effectiveness of mayors and governors during drastic collective events. A total of 34 peer-reviewed articles met our criteria. They were analysed using the theoretical framework by Boin on leadership tasks, i.e., sense making, decision making, meaning making, terminating, and learning. Studies ranged from minor incidents like local riots, to the events of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The material turned out to be dominated by Western and American studies. Because of limitations in the empirical and knowledge base of the studies, it is difficult to draw general conclusions on what is supposed to be effective leadership by mayors and/or governors in these circumstances.

Forum Article

Authors

Wouter Jong,

1. INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

2. Dutch Association of Mayors (Nederlands Genootschap van Burgemeesters), The Hague, The Netherlands

Search for more papers by this author

Michel L. A. Dückers,

Impact - National Knowledge and Advice Centre for Psychosocial Care Concerning Critical Incidents, Partner in Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group, Diemen, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this author

Peter G. van der Velden

INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this author

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on leadership tasks and effectiveness of mayors and governors during drastic collective events. A total of 34 peer-reviewed articles met our criteria. They were analysed using the theoretical framework by Boin on leadership tasks, i.e., sense making, decision making, meaning making, terminating, and learning. Studies ranged from minor incidents like local riots, to the events of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The material turned out to be dominated by Western and American studies. Because of limitations in the empirical and knowledge base of the studies, it is difficult to draw general conclusions on what is supposed to be effective leadership by mayors and/or governors in these circumstances.

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Leadership of Mayors and Governors during Crises: A Systematic Review on Tasks and Effectiveness

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Forum Article INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands Dutch Association of Mayors (Nederlands Genootschap van Burgemeesters), The Hague, The Netherlands Search for more papers by this author Impact - National Knowledge and Advice Centre for Psychosocial Care Concerning Critical Incidents, Partner in Arq Psychotrauma Expert Group, Diemen, The Netherlands Search for more papers by this author INTERVICT, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands Search for more papers by this author The aim of this article is to provide a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on leadership tasks and effectiveness of mayors and governors during drastic collective events.

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Innovative Community Policing | Matt Lennick | TEDxBillings

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How do you deal with the fact that arresting everyone for anything doesn't help? Get creative! Since 2014 Matt has worked as a Downtown Resource Officer for the Billings Police Dept, working with the businesses and residents of the downtown area.

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crime prevention through environmental design

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CPTED Design Guidelines - Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

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crime prevention through environmental design

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International CPTED Association (ICA) - CPTED Journals

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Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

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Crime prevention through environmental design - Wikipedia

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Crime prevention through environmental design ( CPTED) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior through environmental design. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts. Generally speaking, most implementations of CPTED occur solely within the urbanized, built environment.

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Focus on Places, Not People, to Prevent Crime | Joel Caplan | TEDxStocktonUniversity

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Big Brother on Prozac

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There's no escaping China's Big Brother.

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burglary - The guardian. Open windows should not be investigated.

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burglary - The guardian. Open windows should not be investigated.

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/17/burglaries-linked-to-carelessness-should-not-be-investigated-police-chief-suggests

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Assistant chief constable of Leicestershire police says NHS would not operate on obese people yet police are expected to investigate 'preventable' burglaries

A senior police officer has been criticised for suggesting some burglaries should not be investigated if doors and windows have been left open.

Phil Kay, assistant chief constable of Leicestershire police, said he would "far rather" officers focus on preventing crime and protecting the public than investigate break-ins where carelessness may have played a role.

The senior officer posed the question while discussing a high rate of burglaries at properties occupied by students at Loughborough University.

In order to get students to "take notice", Kay suggested police could employ similar methods to NHS services when providing treatment for the clinically obese.

"What the National Health Service will say is 'we are not going to operate on you because your body mass is too high'. They have not helped themselves to prevent an illness," he told the Loughborough Echo.

"Yet if people leave doors or windows open there is an expectation the police will investigate.

"I would far rather my officers were spending their time preventing crime, protecting the public and focusing on other stuff than things that are preventable."

Under a long-running operation Leicestershire police have attempted to tackle the problem by raising awareness among students.

"It is right that we try and stop it but it is right that people take responsibility," Kay said.

Kay said he was not suggesting Leicestershire police had any plans to change their practices, adding: "I pose that as a question."

However the suggestion was met with criticism.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, who represents north-west Leicestershire, said: "I would like to hope that the force are putting this out there as a way of reminding the public of the importance of not leaving doors or windows open.

"But it is their job to detect and investigate such crimes, not to penalise law-abiding citizens who may have made a mistake."

Sandie Forrest, a local councillor, said she was "astounded" the question had been posed. "I think the comparison that the police are making with the NHS is a poor one because at the end of the day the NHS will intervene at some stage," she said.

"I appreciate that the police have an enormously difficult job to do, but this would be extremely unpopular with the public," she told the Echo.
Topics

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Burglaries where window left open should not be investigated, police chief suggests

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Assistant chief constable of Leicestershire police says NHS would not operate on obese people yet police are expected to investigate 'preventable' burglaries A senior police officer has been criticised for suggesting some burglaries should not be investigated if doors and windows have been left open.

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Gentrification Is Not Inevitable: Care and Resistance | Winifred Curran | TEDxDePaulUniversity

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Seventy one people died after a huge fire engulfed Grenfell Tower - a 27-storey tower block in West London. Some residents of the north Kensington building escaped as the fire took hold on 14 June, while others were trapped inside.

Here's a visual guide to what happened that night.

The blaze took hold quickly

Emergency services were called to the fire at the block of flats in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea just before 01:00 BST on Wednesday 14 June. It is believed to have started on the fourth floor and spread quickly.

A total of 65 people were rescued from the building by firefighters. Some residents appear to have moved up the building to escape the flames, only to become trapped in flats of friends and neighbours on the upper floors. Twenty one people died on the top floor of the tower block.

The blaze was not brought under control until 01:14 BST on Thursday - 24 hours later.

Who were the victims?

Messages from the tower

The people of the 21st floor

The building was left in ruin

The tower, part of the Lancaster West Estate, a social housing complex of almost 1,000 homes in West London, was left extensively damaged.

All four facades were affected and 22 apartments in nearby Grenfell Walk were also destroyed, the council said.

Specially trained officers from the Met, City of London Police and British Transport Police have been involved in the search and recovery operation, thoroughly searching every single flat on every single floor.

Officers have examined 15.5 tonnes of debris on each floor, helped by forensic anthropologists, archaeologists and forensic dentists or odontologists.

A public inquiry, ordered by Prime Minister Theresa May, is under way.

Lawyers representing survivors and relatives of the victims began giving evidence to the public inquiry into the tragedy on Monday 11 December.

The Metropolitan Police are looking into offences including manslaughter, corporate manslaughter, misconduct in public office and breaches of fire safety regulations in relation to the fire, the inquiry has been told.

The force has already gathered 31 million documents and 2,500 physical exhibits. Some 1,144 witnesses have given statements and 383 companies are part of the investigation.

The public inquiry plans to deliver an interim report into the fire's causes and the emergency response by next autumn.

There are many victims

Seventy one victims of the Grenfell Tower fire have been formally identified and police believe that all those who died have now been recovered.

The victims include baby Logan Gomes, who was stillborn in hospital on 14 June, the day the 24-storey blaze broke out.

The final two victims formally identified were Victoria King and her daughter Alexandra Atala.

The Met Police said they were providing "every support we can" to the bereaved.

More from the BBC

This is the story of some of those who were in the fire, told through friends and family who were in touch with them during those desperate hours, and in the words of those who survived.
Messages from the Tower
The tower was built in the 1970s, but recently renovated

Grenfell Tower was built in 1974 by Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council.

An £8.6m refurbishment - part of a wider transformation of the estate - was completed by Rydon Construction in May last year. Work included new exterior cladding, replacement windows and a communal heating system.

The bottom four floors were also remodelled, creating seven additional homes and improvements to communal facilities.

There are now 129 flats across 21 residential floors and three levels of mixed use.

The tower was managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) on behalf of the council.

Newly-installed cladding is being scrutinised

Fire safety experts have pointed to cladding on the building as a possible reason the blaze spread so quickly.

Footage has shown the fire travelling up one side of the building, before engulfing the entire block.

New cladding was fitted as part of a £8.6m refurbishment of the tower, completed in May last year.

The cladding had a metal outer coating and an expanded foam interior. This polyethylene - or plastic - core is less fireproof than other alternatives.

However, even this type of cladding - when properly fitted and with its polyethylene insulation expertly encapsulated - should resist fire, the Fire Protection Association (FPA), the UK's national fire safety organisation, said.

Some exterior cladding can create cavities which, in some cases, can cause what's known as "a chimney effect", drawing flames up the cavity if there are no fire barriers.

Ray Bailey, managing director at Harley Facades Limited, which installed the cladding, said: "At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower."

Rydon, the contractor responsible for the renovation of the tower, said its work "met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards".

It later issued a new statement, removing the previous mention of the building meeting fire regulation standards, instead saying the project met "all required building regulations".

The tower is in an area with a big gap between rich and poor

In the aftermath of the fire, residents told the BBC how they felt ignored by the authorities and pushed out by affluent outsiders.

Anger over the response to the disaster has led many residents to protest and to call for greater representation at the ongoing public enquiry.

Michael Mansfield QC, representing some of the 71 victims, said there was a feeling that "those people most affected have not been included" in the process.

Kensington and Chelsea is one of the richest areas in the country.

The average salary is £123,000: the highest in the UK. But the median average - the midpoint of all salaries in the area - is £32,700.

No other local authority in the country has such a large gap between these two averages, pointing to a huge contrast between high and low earners.

There is a similarly large gap when measuring the total income for people in the area. The average is £158,000, but the median is £38,700. Again, no other local authority in the UK reports such a difference.
Data sources: Department for Communities and Local Government, the Office for National Statistics, and Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs.

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Seventy one people died after a huge fire engulfed Grenfell Tower - a 27-storey tower block in West London. Some residents of the north Kensington building escaped as the fire took hold on 14 June, while others were trapped inside. Here's a visual guide to what happened that night.

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The teenager who sent a public Facebook party invite (R) leaves her house with her mother in Haren, September 21, 2012

Miss Weusthuis's initial mistake, in using open-access settings on Facebook, meant the electronic invitation sent two weeks ago was eventually seen by 240,000 people, of whom 30,000 confirmed online that they planned to attend.

But that was not all. An unauthorised campaign was launched to promote the birthday party, reaching high levels of sophistication with the setting-up of a website, as well as a Twitter account which received hundreds of thousands of hits.

Over the following days the party become known as "Project X Haren" - inspired by the film "Project X", released this year, in which three high school students throw a birthday party which spirals out of control.

Scenes from Project X and footage from dance festivals were used to produce film "trailers" for the party which were posted on the YouTube website.

Hundreds of youths gather in Haren, northern Netherlands, on September 21, 2012.

At one stage during the build-up Miss Weusthuis, realising that things were getting out of hand, complained online that T-shirts with her face on were being produced and sold.

Her father, Coen Weusthuis, a management consultant, told her to remove her original Facebook invitation and call off the party, but the momentum proved unstoppable. Local media reported on the forthcoming event, while day-trippers began turning up to have their photograph taken outside the Weusthuis family home in the town of Haren (population 18,000), near Groningen in the north of The Netherlands.

Fearing the likely outcome, Dutch police were placed on high alert on Friday as thousands of teenagers, many drinking beer and spirits, began gathering around the house.

By the afternoon, hours before the party was due to start, Miss Weusthuis - who was pictured in a T-shirt with the slogan "We Gonna Party" shortly before her birthday - was seen being driven away from the house by her mother Frieda, a training consultant, to a safe retreat.

As darkness fell, tensions rose when it became apparent that there was no house party for the crowd to gatecrash. Violence broke out and 500 riot police were deployed, with officers equipped with helmets, shields and batons moving in to club some of the would-be partygoers in the attempt to clear them away from the property.

The disturbances spilled over into Haren's town centre, where shops were vandalised and looted, journalists attacked, a car set on fire, other vehicles overturned and street signs and lampposts damaged. During the melee shop windows were smashed, fires started and supermarket trolleys turned into makeshift barricades.

Officers, who had travelled from surrounding towns and cities for the event, took more than five hours to disperse the crowd. They made 34 arrests, while six people were injured, two seriously.

Haren's chief police superintendent Oscar Dros said yesterday: "My team had to confront aggression seldom seen in the Netherlands."

Robert Bats, Haren's mayor, said: "Scum ran amok in our town. An innocent invitation on Facebook for a party led to serious rioting, destruction, plundering, arson and injuries in the middle of Haren."

He said that a core group of the rioters "were very violent and well-prepared, and deliberately sought confrontation with the police".

The scenes of chaos dwarfed even the mayhem surrounding a number of recent 'Facebook parties' in Britain, including one in April this year when more than 400 gatecrashers invaded the 16th birthday party of Bradley McAnulty at his family home in Poole, Dorset, causing extensive damage.

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Facebook party leads to riots in Dutch town

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The teenager who sent a public Facebook party invite (R) leaves her house with her mother in Haren, September 21, 2012 Miss Weusthuis's initial mistake, in using open-access settings on Facebook, meant the electronic invitation sent two weeks ago was eventually seen by 240,000 people, of whom 30,000 confirmed online that they planned to attend.

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What would you do if the children playing outside the front of your house were behaving badly? What if you blamed them for damaging your car or firing airgun pellets at your dog? Would you go out and remonstrate with them, talk to their parents, call the local Neighbourhood Policing Team, or install a high-pitched alarm that only younglings can hear to scare away the loitering tearaways?

The last is exactly what Scott Smith, 43, a Royal Mail manager from Royton, Greater Manchester, and his partner, Andrea Riley, 39, have done after claiming they endured months of antisocial behaviour, vandalism, racist abuse and even airgun attacks from local children on their suburban street near Oldham.

"I'm not a grumpy old man who hates children," Smith says. " There was damage to our cars because the kids kept hitting them with footballs. Our dog got hurt. And they made a lot of noise and this device has been a miracle for us."

Unfortunately for Smith, his neighbours aren't happy with his use of the Mosquito MK4 alarm and motion sensor and have complained to Oldham Council under noise-nuisance laws. Neighbour Michelle Plevin, 27, who has four children, says they can't play outside any more and that her youngest child has been made "physically sick" by the device. "He cries and says it hurts and there is nothing I can do to help him. It's awful," she adds.

The latest complaint isn't the first time the Mosquito has caused controversy, though. When the Mosquito was launched in 2008, a campaign called "Buzz Off" led by the Children's Commissioner for England called for it to be banned, claiming the device was unnecessarily aggressive and created no-go areas for children and young adults who may have done nothing wrong. In 2010, an investigation by the Council of Europe found that the device was " degrading and discriminatory" to youngsters and should be banned because it "violates legislation prohibiting torture".

Since it went on the market, nearly 3,000 devices have been sold in the UK, mainly to small-shop owners, but according to its inventor, Howard Stapleton, who runs Compound Security Systems, sales of the device to families and home owners are soaring. "Many home owners and families, like this couple in Royton, have genuine antisocial-behaviour complaints but are simply not getting the assistance they deserve from their local authorities And at the end of the day, if nobody is going to help you, you are going to have to help yourself."

The Mosquito works by emitting an alternating high-frequency tone four times a second which isn't audible to people over about 25 years of age, but is intensely irritating to people under that age. According to Stapleton, a former aerospace engineer who came up with the device after his daughter was intimidated by a gang of boys hanging around outside shops, it makes "a noise that is impossible to ignore" because it takes advantage of a medical condition called presbycusis, which reduces our ability to hear high-frequency noises as we age. "This couple in Oldham are really at the end of their tether," he says. "My colleagues have spoken to them and they are using the device correctly and only when they are experiencing problems. And as to reports of negative side effects, I think they have been over-egged."

The human-rights campaign group Liberty has described it as a " sonic weapon", though, and in January this year the supermarket chain Aldi faced criticism for using the device in Brighton. Local resident Dan Gardener, 24, told The Argus that he tries to avoid the area around the company's London Road store since the device was installed. "It's definitely effective but for where it's positioned it's over the top."
Audio: The sound of the mosquito alarm WARNING: High-pitched noise Audio: The real mosquito noise which can only be heard by people under 25
What the mosquito noise really sounds like by The Independent on Mixcloud

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Sonic youth: The high-pitched sound alarm for under 25s

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What would you do if the children playing outside the front of your house were behaving badly? What if you blamed them for damaging your car or firing airgun pellets at your dog? Would you go out and remonstrate with them, talk to their parents, call the local Neighbourhood Policing Team, or install a high-pitched alarm that only younglings can hear to scare away the loitering tearaways?

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 A look at the positive side of gentrification, based on a study in DC related to education

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 A look at the positive side of gentrification, based on a study in DC related to education

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You may have heard about gentrification when discussing how trendy cupcake shops take over mom-and-pop shops that have come to define a neighborhood, but gentrification doesn't only change the food options in an area. Critics point out that gentrification often changes the racial make-up of a neighborhood, too, but a new study found that gentrification can actually increase school diversity when researchers examined Washington, D.C.'s public school system. These findings are counter to the popular narrative that gentrification ultimately decreases neighborhood diversity.

"Gentrification is a growing phenomenon that influences neighborhoods, cities and schools," Kfir Mordechay, one of the co-authors of the study, which was published by the Civil Rights Project at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), said in a press release. "It presents both challenges and opportunities. Smart policies and thoughtful leadership can manage neighborhood changes in ways that could potentially keep communities affordable, inclusive, dynamic, and diverse."

Gentrification is generally defined as "the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste." For the purposes of the study, researchers defined it as "changes in the proportion of white residents."

The study examined 11 census tracts that experienced at least a 25 percent increase in white residents between 2000 and 2015. Researchers looked a 67 schools within one mile of the center of selected census tracts and compared school demographic data for the years 2000, 2007, and 2014.

Many white parents are still opting to enroll their child in private schools, but public schools are preferred over charter schools, according to this study. The neighborhoods that were gentrifying at the fastest rates saw a decrease in segregation in traditional public schools. Between 2007 and 2014, the share of hypersegregated public schools (99 percent non-white students enrolled) in gentrifying areas fell from 67 percent to 41 percent. Research shows that racially and socioeconomically diverse schools provide cognitive (higher average test scores, lower drop out rates) and social (reduction in racial bias) benefits to all students.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Charter schools, however, didn't see the same increased diversity as traditional public schools. The majority of all charter schools - independent schools that are run using public funds - in both gentrifying and non-gentrifying neighborhoods are still majority Black. In 2014, nearly three-fourths of charter schools were hypersegregated, while 54 percent of public schools enrolled 99 percent non-white students. This finding conflicts with previous research that found charter schools were a tool used by gentrifying, white families to avoid the public school system.

"Although we are concerned about the overall high levels of school segregation in Washington, DC, the trend toward declining racial segregation in gentrifying areas is encouraging," Jennifer Ayscue, the other co-author of the study, said in a press release. "Our hope is that schools will continue to become increasingly integrated as neighborhoods grow more diverse."

While increased diversity is good for Black, Asian, Latinx, and whitechildren alike, other policies must be in place to make sure the Black children aren't pushed out once they become adults. According to Dr. Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, it's not wise to let gentrification run its course without intervention. "You have to have housing policies that enable people to stay [in their communities]."

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Other policy recommendations from researchers include affordable housing and residential assistance programs at the federal and municipal levels and magnet programs in public schools to attract more parents to the D.C. public school system.

Miguel de Oliver, the author of a paper published in Urban Studies has another perspective on gentrification in D.C. "A lot of these neighborhoods are selling cultural diversity," he said, which is a term that's used to attract the upper-middle class to environments flavored with "minority aesthetics which contrast with suburbia," according to de Oliver.

Gentrification is a multi-faceted public policy issue. And like most things, it can have positive and negative side effects. Further research needs to be done in other cities to determine if this study's finding are an outlier or indicative of a larger pattern in demographic change.

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Gentrification Is Making Schools Less Segregated In D.C., According To A New Study

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You may have heard about gentrification when discussing how trendy cupcake shops take over mom-and-pop shops that have come to define a neighborhood, but gentrification doesn't only change the food options in an area.

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Focus on EU regulation and asylum seekers in Rome

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Focus on EU regulation and asylum seekers in Rome

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Awet spreads his hands out and shows us his scarred fingertips. "He burned his fingertips so he could apply for asylum like a new person," explains his friend.

Awet spreads his hands out and shows us his scarred fingertips. "He burned his fingertips so he could apply for asylum like a new person," explains his friend.

A group of men are gathered in the back room of a large squat on the outskirts of Rome, talking about their struggle to beat the European asylum system. They explain that it is common for asylum seekers to burn their fingers, so the fingerprint record of their entry into Italy is destroyed.

Awet mimes placing his hands on a hob. "But after five days ... [he holds up his hands to show that the burns have healed] normal," he says, clapping them together with a disappointed sigh.

The Anagnina squat, in a disused glass-fronted office block, looms large over the surrounding industrial estate. The building is home to around 700 migrants and refugees, including families, from four trouble spots of north-eastern Africa: Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.

The satellite dishes on the front of the building are redundant and many of the windows have been smashed. Children's toys scatter the dimly lit corridors. Beds consist of simple mattresses or cardboard on the floor, and there is no hot water or heating. Electricity is sporadic, and there are only a few toilets for the hundreds who live here.

As the other men lean in around him, keen to describe the impossibility of building a new life in Italy, Awet waves his green refugee card that shows he came from Eritrea. "Italy is bad. No work, no house, nothing."

Like all the others, he soon left and travelled to Norway, but when it was discovered that he had already been fingerprinted in Italy he was deported back. Awet clutches a tattered Norwegian identity card as he talks.

Under EU law, asylum seekers have to remain in the first European country they enter. This is known as the "Dublin" regulation after the 1990 summit at which the original system was adopted (coming into force seven years later).

For many European countries including the UK, Dublin is a key tool in a regime of tough border controls, allowing refugees to be deported back to Europe's southern border countries where they first entered the EU. Countries such as Italy and Greece, with minimal welfare provision for refugees, receive the most Dublin returns each year because so many of the asylum seekers who land there do not wish to stay.

To the men in this hot, dark room and to thousands more who attempt to beat the system each year, Ireland's capital city is a dirty word. "Dublin is a virus," Awet says. "Yes, Dublin is like Aids."

The rest all nod - they too have been fingerprinted in Italy, and know they will never be "cured". Sitting in a circle, they list the places they have tried to start afresh: Norway, England, Switzerland, Sweden, England again.

David, 21, arrived here four years ago, travelling overland from Ethiopia, through Libya and across the Mediterranean. "I told them I was 17, they gave me €200 and told me to go anywhere I liked. They put me in the street. So I came here."

Finding no work, David decided to travel on to the UK. "There they gave me a one-bedroom flat, I started at Bedford college, I learned English and they gave me £55 a week. I was happy." He smiles sadly. "Then they found my fingerprints." As soon as he was 18, David was deported, and returned to the Anagnina squat: "I felt sad, I cried." He says life is not possible here in Italy: "No, no life here. Just living."

These homeless refugees are part of a legal and diplomatic battle currently being fought all over Europe. Italy, which like Greece is struggling with the twin pressures of the financial crisis and a large increase in north-African migrants from this year's uprisings, says the Dublin regulation is adding to its burden. Removals to Greece, meanwhile, have been suspended across much of the EU because of the severe conditions there, pending the outcome of a test case in the European court of justice.

Human rights lawyers in Britain are also trying to stop asylum seekers being sent back to Italy. They say the lack of support and housing in Italy is leaving thousands, at all stages of the asylum process, living in dangerous and unsanitary squats like Anagnina, or on the street.

The Dublin regulation was introduced partly to avoid "asylum shopping", wherein people like David and Awet might be drawn to better welfare systems in countries such as the UK and Norway. Critics of the Italian system say welfare is crucial to help integrate refugees, and the lack of welfare in Italy is an urgent problem.

"We speak about legislation but forget to translate this into a life," says Laura Boldrini, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Italy.

"Refugees don't know the language, they may be traumatised, they are lost and don't know what to do - rebuilding a life is not a joke. International protection becomes a box with no key; to open it you need integration."

The British government is, nonetheless, fighting hard to keep the Dublin regulation in place, and in a case before the high court next Tuesday, the Home Office will argue that Italy is a safe country, with enough support available for all those in the asylum system.

It is midnight at Termini station in central Rome, and the streets are still busy with tourists and late-night drinkers. But it takes only minutes to find some recent arrivals to Italy who have struggled to settle.

Siako and his friends are lying on pieces of cardboard at the back of the station. They stand out from the other homeless who sleep, often passed out from drink, all along the street, because they are young, clean and smartly dressed. Many are listening to music on headphones. But Siako, 23, is fizzing with anger. He jumps to his feet, pulls out his refugee accreditation and unfolds it, shaking it in the air. He waves his arms around, pointing at his sleeping friends: "He has documents, he has documents - over there, they all have documents. But we all sleep on the street.

"Frankly, in Africa, if someone had told me that Italy was like this, I would have said he was lying. If someone said that even when you have the legal papers you still sleep on the street, I would've said that's wrong, that's not possible. You must see it to believe it."

As he talks, a van pulls up and hearty-looking Americans get out and pass round bags of sandwiches. The men take them without smiling. "We came from Ivory Coast to escape the war, through Libya," Siako explains. "And now we are sleeping on the street."

His friend looks up and says, "I was crying here yesterday, thinking about my papa at home dying. Italian people walk past and they think I'm crazy. Everybody is going crazy here because they have no home."

Siako's story is typical: he was given accommodation in a camp at first while his claim was processed. But once he was recognised as a refugee, he was on his own. Unlike in the UK or other northern European countries, in Italy there is almost no integration for refugees once they are given protection, and no welfare support. Many refugees describe a life that is a constant struggle for basic survival, walking for hours across Rome to get food at handouts from churches or NGOs.

Dr Lê Quyên Ngô Dình is a director at Caritas, one of Rome's biggest refugee charities. She says the introduction of the Dublin rules changed the pressures on Italy, but the country has yet to change its system in response. There are reception camps that offer a short and limited initial stay to nearly all asylum seekers, but only 3,000 spaces in the official integration accommodation that follows. The interior ministry says there have been 10 times that many asylum seekers so far this year - plus the number of Dublin returns arriving at Rome airport alone has increased significantly - to between 10 and 20 a day.

"Ten years ago, Italy was a transit country, but since Dublin we have seen an increase in people staying here," Lê Quyên says. "And this is a big problem for Italy. The system is the one that worked 10 years ago; 3,000 beds was enough then, now it is not enough."

"If you get one of those, you get good care. But if not, you are on the street ... You have the rights, but because the Italian welfare system is so weak - they are just rights on paper."

Christopher Hein, director of the Italian Refugee Council, says that court cases such as those being brought in the UK over conditions in Italy are a distraction, when what is actually required is a wholesale reform of the Dublin regulation. "I am not here to defend the Italian non-system of reception. But I sometimes feel this distracts from the real issue, which is the Dublin regulation itself."

Along with other refugee groups across Europe, Hein is working to have the Dublin system abolished.

"Human beings, a big percentage of whom have suffered violence and persecution in their country of origin or on the journey - they are just pushed from one place to another like a package ... They are being re-traumatised by Dublin."

Hein wants a common EU asylum policy that would allow asylum seekers to choose the country they want to go to. It would, he says, allow refugees to join up with family and community support networks, and enable them to build a life, and work. "This would be far less costly for the social budgets of member states because it would facilitate integration."

One community that is drawn to the UK in particular is Afghans. Behind the last platform at Rome's busy Ostiense station, around 80 Afghans including several children live in a squalid, makeshift camp. They sleep in donated tents, holes ripped in their sides to release some of the suffocating summer heat.

There is a small standpipe for water and a few temporary toilets have been placed outside. Children run through piles of debris as commuters wait for trains on the other side of a chainlink fence.

Arif, a journalist from Afghanistan, was deported from the UK three weeks ago. Arif says he left his country with his life in danger, passing through Italy to get to the UK, where he has a brother. "But I knew I couldn't claim asylum in the UK because of my fingerprints".

Arif lived with his brother in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and worked illegally in a fast-food restaurant for four years. He says he didn't want to, but the Dublin system drove him underground. British immigration officials raided the restaurant last month and he was deported.

Arif says the British authorities told him that "everything in Italy would be OK". But after 20 days he has been offered no accommodation despite asking for help from the Italian authorities, and has ended up homeless and back at Ostiense station.

"I'm tired, tired of everything. I want to stay with my family in England, but because of Dublin I have to sleep here," he says, pointing at the tents under the railway bridge.

At the camp's gate, a group of young boys gather. Feroz, 16, has recently arrived from Afghanistan by boat, landing in Rimini.

He angrily tells us about his new neighbours, some of whom, he says, have already been sent back from other European countries. Others are very young and need help in Italy.

"This guy here is 12 years old. The government are deaf, they can't hear people. I want to ask other European countries: where is the help?"

He points at another friend, caught in the classic Dublin trap: "What can he do? He is 18, his family are in Sweden - but his fingerprint is in Italy."
Some names have been changed to protect anonymity Topics

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Dublin regulation leaves asylum seekers with their fingers burnt

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Awet spreads his hands out and shows us his scarred fingertips. "He burned his fingertips so he could apply for asylum like a new person," explains his friend. Awet spreads his hands out and shows us his scarred fingertips. "He burned his fingertips so he could apply for asylum like a new person," explains his friend.

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Abstract

Environmental research on residential properties' vulnerability to burglary usually focuses either on the houses that have been burgled or on the streets in which they are located. This research explores both house and street level in a fixed-effects model and, using tangible CPTED measures, takes a wider perspective to assess vulnerability to burglary. The results indicate that dwelling type, visibility and boundary height have significant effects, and that street type and indicators of antisocial behaviour also have strong effects. Furthermore, these street-level variables appear to strengthen some of the house-level vulnerabilities. We argue that both house and street levels should therefore be included in any assessment of the risk of burglary.

Keywords

Burglary Vulnerability Fixed effects CPTED Multilevel

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Adding to the mix: a multilevel analysis of residential burglary

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Environmental research on residential properties' vulnerability to burglary usually focuses either on the houses that have been burgled or on the streets in which they are located. This research explores both house and street level in a fixed-effects model and, using tangible CPTED measures, takes a wider perspective to assess vulnerability to burglary.

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Gloucestershire police have solved less than seven per cent of burglaries this year and failed to recover almost £30million worth of stolen goods since 2011.

The force's success rate in solving burglaries has been dropping year on year, according to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request by Gloucestershire Live.

The revelations come as the county's police face a real-terms budget cut of £2million.

The total value of items stolen in break-ins across the county over the last seven years is £31,569,674.

Only £3,140,185 worth has been returned to victims, less than ten per cent of the amount stolen.

And just 231 of the 3,463 burglaries committed in the first ten months of 2017 were solved.

This equates to 6.7 per cent, which is down from the 12.7 per cent Gloucestershire police solved in 2011.

Cheltenham borough councillor Max Wilkinson (Lib Dem, Park Ward) says the statistics provide more evidence the force is underfunded.

Chief Inspector Brian Clifford said burglars getting "ever wiser about how to cover their tracks" has been a factor in the police's struggles.

Investigators failed to even identify a suspect for 81.2 per cent of burglaries this year, while the figure for the last seven years overall is 80.4 per cent.

The full figures

A victim's perspective

One Gloucester woman, whose home was burgled a few weeks ago, says the break-in is "still raw".

The victim, who did not give her name, said the stolen goods can be replaced, but her sense of security was rocked.

She added: "I know this feeling will pass and I won't let them win by making me feel insecure in my own home, but it does shake you nonetheless.

"They won't find the person or persons who did this to us we don't think, as they found no forensic evidence at the scene, which is increasingly a problem.

"Plus we also need to address the wider issue of why people have to burgle in the first place, which is often drug related.

"People rob and take what they can to sell to feed their habits and that vicious circle sadly is not easy to solve."

An underfunded force?

There will be no increase in Gloucestershire police's funding next year, unless Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Martin Surl hikes council tax.

Councillor Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dems' prospective parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham, believes the force is suffering from an inadequate budget.

He said: "I think everyone knows the police are being underfunded by the government.

"People will have noticed an increase in crime, and it's important to note as well that being burgled is one of the most unpleasant crimes you can have against your property.

"Anyone who has been burgled knows how disempowering it feels.

"Keeping our streets free of crime and detecting crime is something we should expect as a minimum."

The councillor called on the government to "make a proper commitment" to funding the police, rather than "passing the buck" to PCC Surl.

What do police say?

Chief Inspector Brian Clifford said: "On average our officers arrest more than one person a day on suspicion of burglary, but the reality is the vast majority of burglaries are not solved.

"There are many reasons for this - firstly, as police we have to find evidence to prove a case beyond all reasonable doubt for a conviction at court.

"With offenders getting ever wiser about how to cover their tracks, securing evidential material that reaches that very high threshold is not always possible.

"And of course there will be people we charge with a certain number of burglaries who may be responsible for many more break-ins that we just don't have the evidence to charge them with."

He added that a single burglar can cause "mayhem" by breaking into multiple properties, sometimes dozens of houses.

"If a burglar who is charged with one offence admits breaking into more properties then that is taken into consideration by the judge at court, but if they don't and there isn't enough evidence, those crimes remain on our system as unsolved," Chief Inspector Clifford said.

"We should reassure people though that we do investigate and are committed to tackling domestic burglaries as we know how devastating they can be.

"A lot of police time, resource and effort goes into trying to detect burglary and arrest offenders and our officers are passionate about bringing burglars to justice.

"But we are also committed to raising awareness of how to prevent burglaries in the first place and these figures show just how important it is for people to take all the security measures they can, including marking property, fitting alarms and ensuring doors and window are secured."

Were you a burglary victim in 2017? Get in touch with your story by emailing conor.gogarty@localworld.co.uk

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Police solving under 7% of burglaries as over £30m of loot stolen

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Gloucestershire police have solved less than seven per cent of burglaries this year and failed to recover almost £30million worth of stolen goods since 2011. The force's success rate in solving burglaries has been dropping year on year, according to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request by Gloucestershire Live .

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Teenagers have spoken out after concerns were raised about gangs of youths causing trouble and intimidating residents in Gloucester.

There have been countless reports of problems not just in the city centre but in suburbs such as Kingsway, Podsmead and Tuffley and residents are really worried there is a perceived growing trend of anti-social behaviour.

A meeting has now been called between police, community groups and youth leaders on Friday to try to find a solution.

However, teenager Keisha Leigh is urging people to not assume all youngsters are causing trouble.

The 14-year-old from Tuffley said: "Don't judge a book by its cover. Just because some of the other gangs of kids are intimidating others does not mean that we are.

"We are not a gang, we are friends who just chill up by the park together."

It comes as one video surfaced of a mass gathering at the green by the Tuffley Court Community Association on Saturday evening involving up to 60 young people which lead to the arrest of one child.

The scene was one of chaos, hysteria and upset with young people arriving from all over the city.

Members of the public have taken to Facebook to express their disgust at the behaviour with some calling for more police action and hard discipline.

When speaking with some of the young people who were in Tuffley that night they admit that they might smoke, on occasion drink alcohol and meet up in other areas if there is a party happening.

However Keisha who was also at the gathering on Saturday said she remains close to home.

"Mum and I have spoken now and we have agreed that I don't go to the park until it is later because the little ones are there playing and now since that happened by the hall, I won't go outside Tuffley because mum wants to know that I am close by," she said.

There is a wider issue with groups of youths who are causing concern in other wards. In Kingsway, there have been incidents where stones were thrown at cars and numerous reports of gangs on bikes and on foot intimidating people in their vehicles.

A gang of up to 40 masked youths were reported to police for terrorising people in the city centre and breaking into the old Cineworld cinema on October 11.

However Tyler Hawker, 13, from Tuffley said just because lots of young people meet up together does not mean they are all going out to cause trouble.

"We all meet up but not everyone in Tuffley hangs around with each other. My mum worries that I am hanging around with people that are older than me but I don't," he said.

"We don't want to upset anyone and I don't see why people would think that we are intimidating if we are in a large group. We are not hurting anyone."

What the community is doing to help

One resident who is turning her concern into action is Court Community Association (CCA) manager Jennie Layhe .

"I am stepping forward to help the young people in Tuffley with regard to these so called gangs because they listen to me," she said.

"These kids know that I will put them in their place if they step out of line, but then I will back them up if they are wrongfully criticised.

"The children in the area are a very diverse group trying to learn their way. They react to situations the same as everyone but without the experience of wisdom and knowledge of hindsight.

"The night where there were 60 kids all in and around the centre, some of them squared up to me when the police were there. However if I had not been there I worry what may have happened. They came up to me and said sorry as well and they knew that I was talking sense that night.

"They were just so angry and didn't know what to do at that point because they saw their friend being held to the floor by the police."

Jennie has been working with her daughter Michelle Hyett, 24 at the CCA and has been able to get to know the young people in Tuffley.

Michelle said: "The young people know that because they are children they won't be listened to. This upsets them because they want to be heard.

"Mum is there to give them a voice but also explains to them how certain behaviour from them doesn't help them. At their ages they don't seem to be listened too and she mediates that."

Not all groups of kids are a gang

Police officers know there seems to be an ongoing issue with young people being a nuisance and disruptive and upsetting communities in wards across the city.

Gloucester Inspector Steve Wood said: "We are aware that anti-social behaviour in Gloucester has been hitting the headlines in the last few days.

"We have warned residents of the group of young people who have been riding bikes and committing crime in the city and we have been working hard to locate those responsible and take appropriate action.

"There has also been reports of anti-social behaviour in other areas of the city and at the weekend we had to contain a situation in Tuffley where around youths gathered while we were trying to make an arrest.

"A 16-year-old has now been charged with obstructing a police officer and will appear at Cheltenham Youth Court on December 1.

"However it is very important to say that we do not believe every incident to be linked to the group we have appealed over and that in reality we believe there to be only a handful of ringleaders.

"Based on some of the reports we have been getting we must also stress that not every young person on a bike is being anti-social and not every group of young people constitutes a gang. In fact in Gloucester we have very few 'gangs' of young people that are organised and commit crime.

"We will investigate all crimes reported and we do have initiatives in place in which our officers and partner agencies work with young people to divert them from anti-social behaviour but a message we will be giving at Friday's community meeting is that it is everyone's responsibility to play their part in tackling this issue.

"I am particularly keen for parents to make sure they know what their children are up to and would also appeal to our communities not to tar all young people with the same brush.

"By working together though I am sure we can address people's concerns."

What can be done to help young people?

Kingfisher Treasure Seekers director Craig Tucker runs the Cavern club in Westgate Street in Gloucester offering activities and a meeting place for young people.

There they engage with those who may find themselves feeling lost and struggling with life and the cards they have been dealt or choices they have made.

Craig, 33, said: "Gangs of youths need be addressed as individuals and not tackled head on as a group. You cannot deal with the situation all guns blazing.

"The root cause needs to be looked at and addressed. For the younger ones that are tagging along with the groups it is them needing a sense of community. The older ones in the gang are often there due to have a sense of belonging if there has been a breakdown in families and relationships."

The Cavern's ethos is to be able to help those that have lost their way become a part of their community again.

Craig said: "In terms of young people at the moment, support starts with boundaries. At the Cavern we have had young people banned two, three or maybe even four times before they finally started to engage. It starts with giving a lot of grace to start with and you work alongside these people to get them to respect the environment that they are a part of."

It seems that the majority of young people that are involved with the disturbances are between the ages of 13 and 16 years old.

Charli Wilkins from Gloucester, who volunteers at the Cavern, used to hang around in a large group gathering in the city centre.

The 19-year-old said: "I got in with the wrong crowd and started doing drugs and bunking off school. This went on for a while and I really did not like who I was becoming.

"I hung around in a big group of what we would call EMOs and goths at the Cathedral. I mean the group was like nearly 100 of us and as much as it was not intentional looking back we would have been quite intimidating.

"It is about realising that your actions damaging your life. It did for me and I lost a lot of weight. I was about 5t 4ins and I went down to about seven stone in weight. It was not good I was addicted.

"It got to a point where I had to make a change, my parents found out and I did not like who I had become. I then started to go to the Cavern when I got to that low point and I started volunteering. I see a future now."

Some young people believe no matter what they do in their spare time, it will be seen as the wrong thing to do.

Morgan Brick, 18 from Gloucester said: "The adults complain that the teenagers are playing in the parks that are for the younger kids, but where else are they meant to go?

"There is very little provision for teenagers where they should make parks for the older ones as well.

"It's a joke as well that the adults complain that the teenagers are indoors all the time playing on Xboxes and PlayStations and being on social media, so in fact they really cannot win."

It is hoped those young people attending the meeting on Friday October 20 will be able to engage with the public to try and figure out a solution.

Chance is Change founder Tom Hoskins works in schools with children who have been or have nearly been sent to Pupil Referral Units (PRU) because of their behaviour.

Tom, 23 from Quedgeley said: "You cannot put an emotionally unstable person in a classroom. They often then end up going to PRU's and then associate with others with similar behaviours.

"Often then they feel that they have had a great time and want to go back. It is my job to nurture and mentor these young people in the schools.

"I have a slightly different approach and worked with children that have no sense of learning, we have got to the bottom of the issues and they have started to learn again."

Gloucester City Council Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods Jennie Watkins (C. Kingsway) said: "I will be going to the meeting at the CCA on Friday to support the work of the community.

"Many of those that will attend to discuss the issues surrounding the young people will have different perspectives, and the wider community will be able to voice their concerns and thoughts.

"The meeting will give the opportunity to everyone to try and find a solution and become more connected."

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Youths speak out after reports of gangs terrorising Gloucester

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Teenagers have spoken out after concerns were raised about gangs of youths causing trouble and intimidating residents in Gloucester. There have been countless reports of problems not just in the city centre but in suburbs such as Kingsway, Podsmead and Tuffley and residents are really worried there is a perceived growing trend of anti-social behaviour.

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Community Crime Prevention & Community Graffiti Initiatives

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PRS are valuable assets in the fight against graffiti across Victoria. They are ideal for removing graffiti in situations that are too small to warrant the use of a community trailer and too large to be tackled with removal wipes or smaller kits.

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Home Burglary Prevention Tips  (Houston Police Department, HPD Video Production)

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Uploaded by Houston Police on 2010-05-27.

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Groot artikel over burglary in denemarken. Lees alleen abstract en gebruik gedeeltes naar eigen inzicht.

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Dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour (full film)

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Charnwood Neighbourhood Housing - Dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour

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Noisy neighbours, barking dogs and traffic now perceived as environmental problem on a level with air pollution, survey finds

People are becoming increasingly intolerant of loud music, barking dogs, noisy neighbours, road traffic and aircraft noise, a major government survey has found.

According to a government survey of attitudes conducted once a decade, noise has risen from ninth to fourth since 2000 in the league table of perceived local environmental problems and is now on a level with air pollution and only behind dog fouling, litter and the loss of green belt land.

Research by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found that 48% of the 2,750 people surveyed in England and Wales felt that their home life was being spoilt by noise, with one in five saying it kept them awake at night.

But while the survey found little change in the proportion of people saying they are affected of unwelcome noise, 11-17% more people said they were significantly upset by it.

"There has been a strongly statistically significant increase in the proportion of respondents who report being bothered, annoyed or disturbed to some extent by road traffic, neighbours , aircraft and building ... despite no material increase in the proportion of the population hearing noise from these four sources," said the report.

The survey also found 10-16% fewer people saying they were not at all adversely affected by noise. "This suggests that the population may be less tolerant of noise than in 2000," said the report.

Neighbour noise and road traffic continue to be the two biggest noise problems, aircraft noise was found to be the fastest growing source of irritation, with nearly three quarters of respondents reporting hearing it and 13% giving 'moderate', 'very' or 'extreme' ratings for being bothered, annoyed or disturbed.

John Stewart, chair of HACAN, the group which campaigns for noise reduction around Heathrow, said the airport has seen a five-fold increase in complaints about noise over the past year. "The results [of the survey] are revealing. This dramatic increase in the numbers disturbed by aircraft took place during a decade when planes were becoming a little quieter. It can only be accounted for by the rise in the number of aircraft using UK airports."

However, a spokeswoman for Heathrow airport said a large number of the complaints came from a single individual, with the top 10 complainants making almost 2,000 complaints per person.

Nearly 200,000 noise complaints were made to local councils in 2012 but, says the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, fewer than 20 people were fined.

Older, retired people were found to be less likely than middle-aged adults to report negatively about the amount of noise in their local environment.

"Noise is an inevitable consequence of a mature and vibrant society. With the increase in population over the past decade in the UK and the development of infrastructure to accommodate that increase, it follows that some noise must continue to occur, indeed as an inevitable consequence. However, the results suggest that the population may be less tolerant of noise than in 2000," the report concluded.
Topics

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Keep calm and carry on: Brits getting intolerant of noise pollution

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Noisy neighbours, barking dogs and traffic now perceived as environmental problem on a level with air pollution, survey finds People are becoming increasingly intolerant of loud music, barking dogs, noisy neighbours, road traffic and aircraft noise, a major government survey has found.

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Noisy neighbours, barking dogs and traffic now perceived as environmental problem on a level with air pollution, survey finds

People are becoming increasingly intolerant of loud music, barking dogs, noisy neighbours, road traffic and aircraft noise, a major government survey has found.

According to a government survey of attitudes conducted once a decade, noise has risen from ninth to fourth since 2000 in the league table of perceived local environmental problems and is now on a level with air pollution and only behind dog fouling, litter and the loss of green belt land.

Research by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found that 48% of the 2,750 people surveyed in England and Wales felt that their home life was being spoilt by noise, with one in five saying it kept them awake at night.

But while the survey found little change in the proportion of people saying they are affected of unwelcome noise, 11-17% more people said they were significantly upset by it.

"There has been a strongly statistically significant increase in the proportion of respondents who report being bothered, annoyed or disturbed to some extent by road traffic, neighbours , aircraft and building ... despite no material increase in the proportion of the population hearing noise from these four sources," said the report.

The survey also found 10-16% fewer people saying they were not at all adversely affected by noise. "This suggests that the population may be less tolerant of noise than in 2000," said the report.

Neighbour noise and road traffic continue to be the two biggest noise problems, aircraft noise was found to be the fastest growing source of irritation, with nearly three quarters of respondents reporting hearing it and 13% giving 'moderate', 'very' or 'extreme' ratings for being bothered, annoyed or disturbed.

John Stewart, chair of HACAN, the group which campaigns for noise reduction around Heathrow, said the airport has seen a five-fold increase in complaints about noise over the past year. "The results [of the survey] are revealing. This dramatic increase in the numbers disturbed by aircraft took place during a decade when planes were becoming a little quieter. It can only be accounted for by the rise in the number of aircraft using UK airports."

However, a spokeswoman for Heathrow airport said a large number of the complaints came from a single individual, with the top 10 complainants making almost 2,000 complaints per person.

Nearly 200,000 noise complaints were made to local councils in 2012 but, says the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, fewer than 20 people were fined.

Older, retired people were found to be less likely than middle-aged adults to report negatively about the amount of noise in their local environment.

"Noise is an inevitable consequence of a mature and vibrant society. With the increase in population over the past decade in the UK and the development of infrastructure to accommodate that increase, it follows that some noise must continue to occur, indeed as an inevitable consequence. However, the results suggest that the population may be less tolerant of noise than in 2000," the report concluded.
Topics

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Keep calm and carry on: Brits getting intolerant of noise pollution

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Noisy neighbours, barking dogs and traffic now perceived as environmental problem on a level with air pollution, survey finds People are becoming increasingly intolerant of loud music, barking dogs, noisy neighbours, road traffic and aircraft noise, a major government survey has found.

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It's an old idea made new: neighbourhood watch groups taking to Facebook and other social media platforms to keep a watchful eye on goings-on in their areas.

Such groups have footholds across Winnipeg's digital map, sprouting up lately in areas including Windsor Park, River Heights and Wolseley, allowing neighbours to share posts advising others of crime, security issues or suspicious interlopers on their streets.

But a University of Manitoba criminologist warns that if they're not done properly, the groups can harm, not help, the neighbourhoods they represent.

Frank Cormier spoke to host Trevor Dineen on CBC Manitoba's Up to Speed on Friday.

The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How helpful are Facebook neighbourhood watch groups when it comes to reducing crime?

They can be, in theory, quite helpful. Criminologists, we look at something we call social disorganization in neighbourhoods, and that's something that often results in a situation where neighbours don't know each other very well.

So in neighbourhoods, for example, that have high in-and-out migration - a lot of turnover of the people who live there - people might not know their neighbours, they might not speak to their neighbours, and so they remain unaware of things that are happening.

They don't recognize when there is, perhaps, a strange or suspicious individual in the neighbourhood, and therefore they're less likely to notice when things are, you know, going wrong in the neighbourhood, whereas if they were in communication with each other, they would be more aware and they perhaps could take steps to try to address the problem.
What are the differences between those real-life programs and these Facebook groups?
The Neighbourhood Watch program has been around for, you know, 50 years now, I think, in the United States and Canada and other parts of the world, so it's a very similar idea in that it's a network whereby neighbours stay in touch with each other, keep each other apprised of issues in the community, sort of look out for each other.

So using Facebook or other social media, it's just really an extension of something that's been around for a while.

One of the potential dangers, though, with new technology - there's always that double-edged sword - is that there have been examples where these Facebook groups have actually started to divide neighbourhoods more than they have brought them together.
How so?
One problem is that very often, there's not sort of a full inclusivity where people take great steps to ensure that everyone in whatever the designated neighbourhood is ... is invited and everyone is really encouraged to take part.

There are cases where you might have a small sub-group in the community, people that already know each other - you know, they're like-minded people - and they start a group and it becomes exclusive to them, rather than inclusive.

And there have been cases where we end up with, if I can use a popular culture reference, sort of a Mean Girls situation, where there's almost a clique that sort of runs the group and the Facebook group becomes more of a "burn book," so to speak, for gossip and attacking other people than it becomes a uniting community resource.
Some posts in these groups include photos or descriptions of people accused of crimes. What are the dangers of sharing these kinds of posts?
There's a number of dangers inherent there. Sharing information can be a good thing. But the problem, and I think we've all observed this, [is] online behaviour can often differ quite severely from our normal in-person social behaviour, and ... people might feel emboldened to make accusations or attacks on people electronically that they wouldn't otherwise.

There have been cases, mostly in the United States to this point, where people were taking photographs of people or making videos of them and posting those to the site and describing them as being suspicious or imputing some, you know, nasty motives to them when these people were perfectly innocent of anything.

And that's when we start getting into dangers of invasion of privacy and possible liability issues. There's civil liability, where they could be found to be libelous ... where you defame someone's character incorrectly, or even gets into criminal matters such as harassment or making threats.
What advice would you give to people who are moderating these Facebook groups to make sure they don't get out of hand?
That is the key, is that there has to be an active moderator who will screen posts and comments people make, and there should be a clear list of rules.

A list of rules to start with, to say we will not, you know, accept posts that are threatening or harassing, etc., etc., and then somebody really does have to screen and moderate those and remove any comments that are moving into more negative territory.

Also, as I mentioned before, inclusivity is the really important part. There has to be a real effort made to get the entire neighbourhood involved in it and included in it, again, to make sure that you're bringing people together rather than fostering anger and resentment and thereby driving people further apart.
Can these Facebook groups work harmoniously with traditional police neighbourhood watch programs?
That's an excellent suggestion that I would make, is that neighbourhoods or groups that are thinking of starting this sort of thing should first consult with the local police. Here in Winnipeg, there still are a number of neighbourhoods that still have fully functioning neighbourhood watch programs.

The police do keep in fairly close contact with those groups and will offer support and advice and can designate a liaison person, so if there are concerns, rather than sort of venting those and perhaps moving into vigilantism, there's one contact person who can speak with the police and the police can advise and assist as necessary.

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Is your neighbourhood Facebook group keeping people safe or just becoming a 'Burn Book?' | CBC News

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It's an old idea made new: neighbourhood watch groups taking to Facebook and other social media platforms to keep a watchful eye on goings-on in their areas. Such groups have footholds across Winnipeg's digital map, sprouting up lately in areas including Windsor Park, River Heights and Wolseley, allowing neighbours to share posts advising others of crime, security issues or suspicious interlopers on their streets.

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Residents and police in Hackney are trialling the use of a new app designed to share information about crime and anti-social behaviour.

Between 300 to 400 residents in Hackney are registered users of the community app Trygve which is used and endorsed by the Metropolitan Police.

Residents log incidents on the app and give descriptions of suspects and other relevant information to help the police in their investigations. Users can share and receive local incident information in real time and it allows people to collaborate by commenting on events or collaborate on fighting crime together. Police in London use the app to post news of arrests, warn residents of repeating crimes in the area and appeal to the public for information.

The app was also trialled in Enfield and Southwark in November last year but has been found to be most effective in Hackney.

According to Trygve, the app has helped tackle drug dealing in the borough. Residents have logged the registrations of cars, mopeds and bikes believed to be involved in drug dealing. The police then used the information to send notices to the vehicle owners and some were visited by the police.

Trygve said that residents were left frustrated when they tried to report crimes by phoning 101 but were left on hold and their concerns were not resolved. The app has been seen as a way of ensuring that residents have a platform to report all criminal concerns and help the police to build evidence.

This new digital approach to tackling crime allows for the Safer Neighbourhoods Team to engage with the local community to tackle issues of anti-social behaviour.

The Met Police support the use of the app and police officers are encouraged to use it in their local policing. Sergeant Bill Connor, of the Territorial Policing branch of the Met , said: "In supporting our national Neighbourhood Watch, we are also supporting the systems they use, including Trygve."

In June 2017, the crime rate in Hackney was higher than average for the Metropolitan Police force area and in October 2017, 241 crimes were reported in Hackney Central alone. In Hackney Downs, Anti-social behaviour counted for 23% of the overall crime rate in October and November with 412 cases being reported to the police.

Trygve started working with the Metropolitan Police in January this year to improve engagement between police officers and residents. Sheona Urquhart, the UK manager for Trygve, told EastLondonLines: "We've worked alongside the local Met Police Safer Neighbourhoods teams in various Hackney wards. The Hackney council community safety department has also become involved, through their work with local police."

The app, launched in Sweden in 2015, was introduced in the UK last June. It also provides users with a personal safety alarm that can notify the nearby public if they need immediate assistance; it can be triggered manually if the user feels unsafe.

One Hackney resident who wanted to remain anonymous told ELL: "Being a part of Trygve has allowed me to get to know my neighbours and local police much better and I feel a part of something bigger.

"It's nice to know that other people in the community feel the same way as I do regarding certain issues. It's also reassuring that we can voice these concerns to local police and get a response."

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'Neighbourhood Watch' app used by Hackney residents to tackle crime | Eastlondonlines

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Residents and police in Hackney are trialling the use of a new app designed to share information about crime and anti-social behaviour. Between 300 to 400 residents in Hackney are registered users of the community app Trygve which is used and endorsed by the Metropolitan Police.

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Community Safety and Crime Prevention Initiatives at the City of Stirling in 2016

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This video provides an overview of the services provided by the City of Stirling's Community Safety team, and how community safety and crime prevention initiatives are implemented at the City of Stirling.