Cllr James Courtenay, cabinet member for community safety and public protection talks tackling anti-social behaviour and crime during the summer, and the joint approach with partners.
Having been born and bred in Southend, I was delighted to take on the “community safety and public protection” portfolio at the end of May following the local elections.
This role oversees many things that are done in partnership rather than solely by the council. Public protection is a perfect example of this, and ensuring we are safe while going about our daily lives.
Our seafront has always attracted a wide variety of people, some of whom have come down to let off steam. We've had a great variety of family events over the years and the seafront also comes to life late into the evening, with many youngsters exerting their independence and hanging out with their friends. We've also had the mods and rockers and the punks and skinheads for example, who historically caused some real challenges to an otherwise very busy but generally family-friendly area.
Over the last couple of decades, we have seen significant and unacceptable levels of anti-social behaviour (ASB) at certain times over the summer. These are usually (but not solely) at the end of the school year and on certain days of the summer holidays. One of the downsides of social media is that there is now great levels of organisation to these events and the message spreads easily and quickly.
Over recent weeks we have seen a handful of days where the numbers of youngsters coming to Southend purely to cause trouble has been totally unacceptable. This has hugely impacted residents, visitors, and businesses alike and lessons have been learned regarding the response. Social media is also not our friend here, with false reports of acid attacks for example spreading like wildfire. That they have been false is good, but the fact they are out there is damaging to Southend's reputation - it understandably makes anyone think twice about taking their young family down to the seafront.
Quite simply, criminals, thugs and those over-stepping the line need to be dealt with and this behaviour will not be tolerated.
While the operational response to the ASB and disorder we have seen on the seafront must always remain with the police, we are able to support them in the best way we can.
In 2016 I founded the Council's Community Safety Team (CST), which has since been expanded. This team, in conjunction with the BID Rangers, can deal with certain issues and incidents freeing up the police to deal with serious criminal matters. We also have a state-of-the-art CCTV camera and control room and new mobile CCTV van, meaning we are able to help the police deploy their resources in the right place, and more quickly.
We also liaise with British Transport Police (BTP) to stop some of the worst offenders from even getting on a train, let alone reaching Southend-on-Sea. By ensuring record levels of investment from central government and the Essex PFCC Roger Hirst, into Essex Police, it also means there are now more Essex Police officers than at any previous time in the forces 183-year history.
Operation Union
Spearheaded by Essex Police, Operation Union runs over the whole summer period, bringing together dedicated police officers deployed to the seafront, supported by the Council's CST and CCTV team, BTP, and the police's community teams and operational support group (specialist trained officers in public order), to tackle problems on the seafront. The police have additional powers, such as dispersal orders, which they can deploy when necessary.
It is difficult for the police and the Council to always get the balance right. The Council doesn't like to issue fines just for having a BBQ or taking dogs on the beach, when a quiet word will do - just like the police don't want to arrest everyone when things turn ugly. However, I am acutely aware of the need to protect those in the city I grew up in and am now raising a family myself - as well as protecting our reputation of being a great place to bring your family and to go out into the evening.
There are regular meetings between the Police, the Council and other agencies responsible for keeping us safe - not only on the seafront but across the whole city. I am always pleased to provide feedback - good and bad - from residents and businesses to the senior police officers responsible for policing our city.