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Anti-social behaviour: Two million police reports go unattended

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The Liberal Democrats have accused the government of being "soft on crime"

Nearly two million anti-social behaviour reports have gone unattended by 34 police forces in England and Wales over the past three years, new figures show.

The figures were released to the Liberal Democrats, who accused the government of being "soft on crime".

They show that 55.2% of all anti-social behaviour incidents recorded between 2019 and 2021 were not responded to.

The BBC has asked the Home Office to comment.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the Conservative government had "let anti-social behaviour run rampant" after years of failing "to give police forces the officers or resources to tackle this scourge properly".

Funding for police forces in England and Wales has increased since 2016 after years of cuts, Home Office data shows.

In March, the government said it would allocate £150m over the next three years to help police and local authorities curb crime and anti-social behaviour.

It said previous rounds of funding had been invested in neighbourhood watch groups, increased CCTV and introducing wardens to undertake community engagement.

At the time, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the money would improve "the safety and security of areas blighted by crime".

In mid-2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out further measures to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour including more electronic tagging of burglars after release.

But, according to the Lib Dems, "too many people feel unsafe just walking down their own streets".

"Priti Patel can try to sound tough on crime, but the facts speak for themselves," Sir Ed said. "The Conservatives are soft on crime and they are letting our communities down."

BBC Panorama reports on what can happen when anti-social behaviour escalates

The Lib Dems used Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to obtain the figures.

They showed that, in six police force areas, officers did not even attend one in three incidents of anti-social behaviour.

Humberside had one of the worst records with just 28.5% of anti-social behaviour incidents attended by an officer, followed by Bedfordshire (30%), Hertfordshire (30.4%), Cambridgeshire (32.3%) and Avon & Somerset Police (32.7%).

Only 14 of the 34 forces had an officer attend half or more of the incidents they recorded.

Other findings include:

  • About 1.6 million of the 3.5 million incidents of anti-social behaviour reported to 34 police forces were attended by an officer (44.8%)
  • 630,244 incidents of anti-social behaviour of the 1,434,150 reported to 34 police forces in 2020 were attended by an officer (43.9%)
  • The five police forces with the most reports of anti-social behaviour in the three-year period were the Metropolitan Police (1,006,063), Lancashire (219,087), British Transport Police (157,176), Northumbria (154,443) and West Yorkshire (138,349)