ASB Review / Community Trigger

[Ratherhaveacupofteaandabiscuit]

Has anyone got experience of using this process?

I am considering requesting one as a next step after a 4 year long course of conduct from a neighbour.

Said neighbour has been given “words of advice” from police twice about their persistent unwanted contact and more recently has been written to by police reiterating this.

I had also previously sent them a registered letter myself telling them all contact is unwanted.

The bar for a charge of harassment seems very high given I have been able to supply video and audio of the neighbour continuing to make contact with me after police intervention when they can be under no illusion that this is welcome.

There are various other petty and bizarre behaviours too which people would find hard to believe but the unwanted contact is the worst.

None of it is overtly threatening, it is more passive aggressive and mocking.

I feel like I live under siege and have to check if the coast is clear before I can go out of my gate. It’s really horrible and has had / is having a substantial effect on my health which is already poor.

This person has subjected their other next door neighbour to some of the behaviours but I am the main target.

I have read about these ASB review multi agency meetings and wondered if it might help although we both live in private properties.

I have. My experience was not positive. BUT they have just strengthened them, in theory, and I now know from my own experience mine was not done properly. Also, the lack of action from the review has been consistently used against me in a 'the review found it didn't meet a theshold' BUT that is just lazy policing. I know they have been successful for some, so in your case it might be worth it. feel free to ask me any questions. I am also 4+ years in and its 2 private owners too.

@dick27 thank you for responding.

Could you tell me how long ago you had the review please and how it wasn’t done properly?

Also, if possible, could you tell me an outline of the sort of behaviour which led to you needing one?

Was the perpetrator made aware of the review or did it not reach that stage?

Is the unwanted behaviour still continuing and do you have any other avenues to pursue?

It was 2 years ago.

It wasn't done properly as 1 it wasn't done as soon as I asked for it. 2 I wasn't asked to attend or supply a statement. 3 I have no idea who was on the panel.

Harrasment and stalking - relentless - photographing, trespass, letters, malicious 3rd-party reporting.

The perpetrator was sent a letter as an outcome, I only know 2 lines from it so I have no idea if I was mentioned or the review was mentioned or what reason they gave for writing to them.

Yes the behaviour continues - the most logical avenue is that police get their finger out and actually do something.

@dick27 if only they would pull their finger out.

I have had crap service from police too. Although the most recent officer was nice the first six varied from monumentally thick to actually horrible.

They have had to be pushed to do anything at all.

I am disabled and have stage 4 cancer so very much meet their criteria of a vulnerable witness and yet at one stage two male officers arrived unannounced and one of them was so aggressive in telling me he was “fed up with people trying to use them as cheap solicitors” that he reduced me to tears.

I had let them into my home, I was even in my dressing gown as it was fairly early and due to pain I am often in bed during the day.

They sat on my sofa and treated me as if I was a criminal. I felt shocked and violated, that my safe space had been breeched. It was awful.

I made a complaint and asked to see their body-warn footage but was refused on the grounds that it would breach the officers right to privacy and the police officer who investigated my complaint said he had viewed the footage and found nothing wrong.

After that I decided I could not be with police officers on my own without a witness and the next time two female officers came out I had a friend with me who happens to be a retired barrister.

They were clearly angry, not interested and one of them was bright red in the face with fury when I introduced my friend even though I had agreed in advance I would want someone with me.

They were more interested in looking at their watches and kept talking about neighbour disputes are generally 50/50 despite my files of evidence.

This year I finally got a nice police officer who listens and tries his best (hence the neighbour is finally getting a police letter) but sadly he is now moving teams so I worry I will be back to the same dross as previously.

The police have almost made me feel as bad as the perpetrator.

I had always supported and believed in the police but these days I am far more sceptical and believing of police corruption and brutality as well as simple incompetence.

I am really sorry you are going through this crap too.

Did your barrister friend give any advice?
what actions are the neighbour doing?

@ALovelyPinkUnicorn not my friend’s field of law.

The neighbour has a wide repertoire of delights but the worst one is repeated unwanted contact.

Yep, I did this. I installed cameras everywhere and then sent every second of video plus I wrote war and peace by email EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. to the police. If it was actively ongoing I called 101 and then once there was some sort of order in place I called 999. We also as a street created a neighbourhood watch group, which we then held 3monthly meetings for and invited the PCSO and local officer. The PSCO always attended, the officer either in person or online. We kept reporting everything. She then breached the order and was taken to court, I continued documenting everything. Eventually the police officer went round and had what she described as a 'firm and frank' conversation with the neighbour. I've absolutely no idea why that conversation worked when all the previous ones had not... but it stopped. Overnight. Not had an issue in 2yrs now....

She was a housing tenant though so maybe the very real threat of the loss of her house made some difference to the process?

@Ratherhaveacupofteaandabiscuit Gosh, I am so sorry you are having this horrendous experience. I can't believe (but yet I can) how awfully you have been spoken to by the police. Your retired barrister friend could cause them hell purely on the basis of having been a barrister. There is no harm, as I see it, in you requesting an ASB review. Just make sure you are fully informed and force them into doing it all properly. And is your MP involved? Mine is, they have truly limited powers but they can make people act a tad quicker and speak on your behalf. I am here if you want to vent/trade horror stories. Oh, and Victim Suppport are supposed to help here...but in my experience were truly awful.