Community Trigger / ASB Case Review

This allows members of the public to ask their local Community Safety Partnership to review responses to incidents of anti-social behaviour

Why was Community Trigger introduced?

The Trigger was introduced to help ensure that agencies are working together to resolve incidents of anti-social behaviour that are affecting residents quality of life.

We do this by:

appropriately sharing information between agencies
reviewing the actions that have been taken
using available resources to try and reach a solution
making recommendations that will hopefully prevent the situation from reoccurring

This does not replace the existing complaints procedures of individual organisations, or your opportunity to complain, when appropriate, to the Local Government Ombudsman or Independent Police Complaints Commission.

When can I use the Community Trigger?

The Community Trigger can be used if you have reported at least three incidents of anti-social behaviour to a relevant organisation within the previous six months.

These are incidents where the same behaviour, nuisance or problem has reoccurred and was reported within one month of it happening.

Defining anti-social behaviour

For the purpose of the Community Trigger, an incident of anti-social behaviour is defined as behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress to a member, or members, of the public.

This could include behaviour such as vandalism, public drunkenness, noisy or abusive neighbours.

Reporting anti-social behaviour

The Community Trigger is not designed to replace existing anti-social behaviour reporting lines or for the reporting of general acts of crime, including hate crimes although these can be included in the number of incidents you have reported if you feel they were part of the anti-social behaviour.

To report an incident of anti-social behaviour please report it to the police online or your local Community Safety Unit on 01303 853000.

If you or someone you know is being bullied, harassed or abused because of your race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity then you can report it via the independent Hate Crime Reporting line on 0800 138 1624.

How do I use the Community Trigger?

To use the Community Trigger you can either:

call 01303 853000
email community.safety@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
or write to Folkestone & Hythe Community Safety Unit, Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Castle Hill Avenue, CT20 2QY

What information do I need to provide?

You will need to provide details of:

the date of each incident that you have reported;
to whom (name, organisation and/or Incident Reference Number - if available); and,
information about the anti-social behaviour incident you were reporting.

By completing a Trigger application you agree to allow your details and information about you to be shared with other agencies.

The Trigger can also be used by any person on behalf of a victim, for example a family member, friend, carer, councillor, Member of Parliament or other professional person. However the victims consent will be needed before a person can use the Community Trigger on their behalf.

What happens next?

We'll contact the other agencies involved

Once a Community Trigger application has been received and accepted, the Community Safety Unit will contact the other agencies involved to confirm the details of the reported incidents to verify the threshold has been met.

You will be contacted to confirm that the Trigger threshold has been met or if it has not been met what action will be taken to deal with the issues raised.

Case review

Following validation of the threshold the Community Safety Unit will request that agencies provide complete details of the case and any actions that have been taken to resolve the issues reported to them.

Arrangements will be made for a review panel to be formed who will then carry out a case review.

The panel will involve senior staff from the appropriate Community Safety Partnership agencies, the Registered Social Landlords and/or other partners that may have been involved.

The panel will discuss the anti-social behaviour and the actions taken.

Results of review

We will write to you soon after the panel meeting to inform you of the findings and recommendations.

We aim to do this as quickly as possible within a maximum 25 working days. Should the review take longer than this we will contact you to explain the delay.

Recommendations

The relevant bodies who undertake a case review may make recommendations to other agencies. The legislation places a duty on a person who carries out public functions to have regard for those recommendations.

This does not mean that they are obliged to carry out the recommendations, but that they should acknowledge them and may be challenged if they choose not to carry them out without good reason.

We will report on the number of Community Trigger applications and provide a summary of the key findings to the Community Safety Partnership and the Office of the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner.

What if I am unhappy with the way the review was handled?

The number of community triggers raised in our District is low. This is because our Community Safety Unit (CSU) is very proactive and meet on a weekly basis with our partners such as Kent Police, Social Services, Housing, Probation, outreach workers, youth engagement services etc, to discuss cases and how we are able to support then collectively. However, some cases are raised and the number of Community Triggers will be published yearly. Community Triggers raised during 2020 are shown below:

How many Community Triggers have been raised in the last 12 months?

2022 - Community Triggers

Total - 0

Accepted - 0

Didn't meet threshold - 0