Sussex Police win national award for anti-social behaviour crackdown in Uckfield

Operation Asteroid, the Wealden neighbourhood policing team’s response to anti-social behaviour in Uckfield, was chosen as the winner of the neighbourhoods category of the 2020/21 Tilley Awards, set up by the Home Office to celebrate successful problem-orientated projects.

Wealden Police’s award-winning approach centred around a community-wide assessment carried out by East Sussex County Council’s children’s services team, which identified issues and explored ways in which partners in the community could play a role in addressing them.

The Contextual Safeguarding Assessment (CSA), carried out in May 2020, followed collaboration over a number of years between police, the county council, town council and Chamber of Commerce, among others, which resulted in a venue and funding being secured to re-open an Uckfield Youth Club in April 2019.

While that work addressed some of the issues in the Uckfield area, there remained continuing challenges with a small number of young people.

Using the information gathered from the CSA, police and the county council identified a group of young people involved in crime and anti-social behaviour, and potentially at risk of criminal exploitation. This cohort of young people were then subject of several months of focused engagement by police officers and youth workers.

Police constables Emily Dudley and Sarah Poplett, from the Wealden neighbourhood policing team, were assigned to the operation to ensure the work was conducted in a consistent way and to help build rapport with the young people.

They carried out regular visits, sometimes in partnership with key workers from children’s services, to establish ways the police could assist in reducing the young person’s involvement in crime or anti-social behaviour.

PC Dudley said, “Since we started that dedicated approach, we now have better relationships with the young people and they seem to have more respect for us and understand that we are there to not only help them, but also safeguard them.

“They do still understand that we are police officers and that we will still enforce the law when they break it. This has helped some of them change their views of the police and the fact that they have got to know us has meant they are more willing to speak to us. This has helped with our understanding of behaviours at individual and group level.”

The regular engagement has also provided an opportunity for police and colleagues to signpost and refer the young people to diversionary activity such as Wealden Works, a local scheme offering training and employment for young people not in education, employment or training.

Since May 2020, there has been a significant drop in offending by the young people involved in Operation Asteroid and a noticeable reduction in anti-social behaviour in some of the hot-spot areas within Uckfield.

East Sussex divisional commander, chief superintendent Tanya Jones said, “Operation Asteroid is a fantastic example of ways in which police can work with partners to address an issue that is affecting our community, with successful results.

“The problem-solving approach adopted by officers and youth workers took into account the other issues often faced by young people involved in and at risk of crime. It acknowledges that enforcement isn’t always the most effective option and looks to work with the young people to safeguard them and divert them away from crime.

“The work has helped improve trust and confidence in the local policing team, particularly among young people, and I’m incredibly proud of the officers involved for their dedication and hard work on the project.”

Councillor Sylvia Tidy, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for children and families, said, “This is a well-deserved award which recognises the amount of work Wealden Police and council staff put into addressing the issues in Uckfield and surrounding areas.

“More often than not anti-social behaviour is seen as an issue for the police to address, but the response to the problems in Uckfield shows just how important it is to work as a partnership and a community to uncover the reasons behind the behaviour and look at the role each part of that community can play to change things.

“The Contextual Safeguarding Assessment is huge undertaking, but was vital in guiding the community’s approach and our children’s services team can be extremely proud of their contribution.”

As a result of winning the award, Sussex Police has been invited to present Operation Asteroid at the National Problem Solving Conference in September 2021. There, the overall winner of the 2020/21 Tilley Awards will be announced.