Police say an operation to tackle anti-social behaviour in Lancaster city centre is working, with the number of reports halving.
Operation Brassica has been running since March, and is the local policing team’s response to Youth anti-social behaviour.
Police say that the city centre experiences youth anti-social behaviour, due mainly to its nature and location, but what was experienced in the early part of 2022 was not acceptable. The Local Policing Team diverted a number of resources to this issue, not only in Lancaster but also Morecambe town centre.
Inspector James Martin said: ‘’We focused our efforts on identification of those involved and worked on post-incident follow up with schools and guardians.
‘’We also focused on putting staff in the locations at hotspot times and increasing our contact with premises that were most vulnerable to youth anti-social behaviour.
‘’In my view, I believe this has had an impact and we are recording less youth anti-social behaviour and we have seen decreasing levels since the start of the year.’’
The city centre has historically remained top of the list for anti-social behaviour in the Lancaster and Morecambe areas for many months and annually remains the highest area for recorded anti-social behaviour.
This was the case in the first quarter of 2022, but in the second quarter of 2022, this has changed and is no longer the top recorded area. Usually, it would be expected to see an ASB increase due to lighter nights and warmer weather, but this has not occurred.
There were 62 calls reporting such behaviour in February, with this figure falling to 31 for June.
Inspector Martin adds: ‘’The team are now looking to evolve the operational deployments with regards Youth ASB to include daytime/early evening street drinking issues in Market Square and surrounding streets.
‘’The Local Policing Team will continue to focus attention on the city centre as with the summer holidays approaching, the area remains vulnerable to acts of Anti-social behaviour.
‘’The team remain committed to supporting all people who live, work and socialise in the City Centre.’’
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