Labour’s campaign against anti-social behaviour in Westminster is intensifying with the recruitment of nine new police officers funded by the City Council to work with them to tackle ASB.
The team is being backed with a Council investment of nearly £3m over three years and represents the first time Westminster has funded Metropolitan Police Officers to work alongside council officers to concentrate on anti-social behaviour and crime that impacts our communities. It builds on other council ASB initiatives introduced by Labour including the new 200 camera CCTV system and the introduction of new public space protection orders (PSPOs) across the City.
Run in partnership with the Metropolitan police, the new team will have three key objectives:
- tackle persistent and high impact anti-social behaviour.
- provide a highly visible uniformed presence on the affected streets.
- enforce relevant anti-social behaviour and criminal legislation through tools including community protection warnings and community protection notices
The officers will be intelligence-led and tasked to focus on hotspot areas based on reports from partners and from the community. These additional, dedicated Metropolitan Police officers will form an 18 strong innovative new Police and Council Tasking Team (or PACT) with the 9 new ASB focused City Inspectors announced earlier this year. This new team will be supported by the wider existing network of City Inspectors, neighbourhood coordinators, Housing ASB officers and noise enforcement officers run by Westminster City Council, ensuring a coordinated response to the things that matter most to residents and businesses.
The formal decision will be taken in early September by Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Public Protection Aicha Less.
Cllr Less said: “People get a lot more reassurance from seeing police on the streets and the new team will be on foot or on bikes – in the heart of the community they serve. They will be working on targeted intelligence and going to where our residents and businesses know they are most needed.
“We are already getting significant results from the council-run CCTV cameras we introduced in 2024, and the anti-social behaviour police team will build on that momentum together with the City Inspectors. As ever, the feedback of local people is invaluable in where we deploy these resources so they really make a difference.”
In February this year, Westminster City Council announced it was committing £2m on city management schemes including doubling the size of its CCTV camera network to 200 cameras (including up to 40 new cameras in the West End to focus on Leicester Square and Soho) and recruiting the additional City Inspectors who form part of the new PACT team.
In a separate development, a public space protection order (PSPO) is due to come into force in South Westminster from September 1st which will give the police and local authority the ability to issue £100 fines for anti-social behaviour – part of a significantly expanded use of these powers now that enforcement can be supported by our new Police and Council Tasking Team. Consultation is currently underway about expanding these ASB-focused PSPO powers to the rest of Westminster.
Cllr Adam Hug, Labour Leader of Westminster City Council, said: “Anti-social behaviour has a corrosive effect on neighbourhoods. Whether it is vandalism, noise, drinking or the more serious realm of blatant drug dealing, it undermines the quality of life and can make people anxious to leave their front doors.
“The significant investment to create a new 18-person team of dedicated police and city inspectors shows just how seriously we take anti-social behaviour and the crime that affects our communities. We will keep on using all the measures at our disposal – from targeted police to public space protection orders – to combat this kind of crime and keep our streets safe. So I warmly welcome this new partnership with the Metropolitan Police.”