A woman had dog mess thrown at her and almost had her door kicked down during a campaign of anti-social behaviour.
A group of young people targeted a woman’s property and became verbally abusive to the occupier according to a new report to be discussed by Liverpool Council. In a written update provided to the local authority’s neighbourhoods committee ahead of its meeting on Tuesday, an example of the work of the city’s Safer and Stronger Communities Team (SSCT) in a bid to reduce anti-social behaviour.
The report said a resident contacted the council team after six young people were gathering in the street and outside her home. It said: “The group was causing general annoyance to residents in the street but appeared to be targeting this resident.
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“On a couple of occasions, the resident asked the group to move away from her home and when she did, so they became verbally abusive and the specific targeting of the individual continued. The size of the groups also increased and other young people with no connections to the street began hanging around and joined the original group.”
The report said the continued presence of the group left the woman feeling “increasingly intimidated” with behaviour escalating to her reporting having a bag of dog excrement thrown at her and an attempt made to kick in her front door. Merseyside Police were able to identify one of the youths involved with a letter being sent to their parents “notifying them that their child was part of a group causing anti-social behaviour and intimidating residents.”
This did not prove to be a strong enough deterrent however, with the group returning in greater numbers after an initial dispersal. The report said the woman was taunted when she left home and had her house alarm box vandalised.
In a bid to curb the anti-social behaviour, a temporary camera was installed at the complainant’s home which acted as a deterrent. This was funded by the SSCT.
A letter drop was also carried out in the street in the hope that neighbours may be willing to come forward and provide information to assist with enquiries. Despite some residents being reluctant to come forward to report incidents to either Merseyside Police or Liverpool Council for fear of becoming victims themselves, one individual did come forward with a young person identified as a result.
The report said two youths identified agreed to sign Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) and targeted support services to discourage them from anti-social activities. To provide reassurance to the complainant, additional funding was secured to provide and install a permanent CCTV camera.
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