The government has announced Respect Orders, new powers to be introduced in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill. These will allow the police and councils to bar people from town centres or parks, as well as to impose positive behavioural requirements. Breaking…
Community Protection Notices (CPN) are on-the-spot legal orders that can be issued if a council or police officer judges a person’s conduct to have a ‘detrimental effect on the quality of life’. (See our Campaign Against Community Protection Notices). The CPN must…
Successive governments have set the police on a dangerous course of ‘fast and loose’ policing. This prioritises the high use of increasingly flexible powers, with low benchmarks for issue, and carrying increasingly heavy penalties. There is no credible official data on the…
We have been in touch with an elderly man who received a series of Community Protection Notices, Civil Injunctions, and now a Criminal Behaviour Order, for the offence of feeding the birds. The gentleman says that feeding the birds has helped him with grief after the loss of his partner, and with alcoholism and mental health issues. This is someone who requires help and sensitive treatment. Yet the council has responded only with criminalisation, issuing a series of legal orders and breach prosecutions, one of which resulted in a 15-week spell in prison. The man says that the council’s actions have left…
Manifesto Club Thinkpieces put our campaigning in broader perspective, exploring the underlying dynamics behind the state regulation of public spaces and informal life. This Thinkpiece on Behaviour Control Orders explores this new form of state control of individual and public conduct. It…
(Guest post by the Manna Society) An 80-year-old pensioner was served with a Community Protection Notice (CPN) following a complaint by their upstairs neighbour alleging that the pensioner was hitting their ceiling at unsociable hours and disturbing them. On receipt of the CPN, the pensioner brought it to the attention of the Manna Society, a charity running a day centre they were using daily. The pensioner was adamant that they were not responsible for the noise nuisance and could not be responsible due to health issues. The pensioner was absolutely incensed – they had been resident for over 25 years, and up…
The Criminal Justice Bill (CJB) will extend unchecked police and council powers in public spaces and in the home. This briefing concerns the CJB’s amendments to the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (ASBCPA). Over the past 10 years, the Manifesto…
Community Protection Notices (CPNs) are on-the-spot legal orders that can be issued on the basis of a police or council officer’s opinion that somebody’s conduct has a ‘detrimental effect on the quality of life’. There is no requirement for the officer to gather evidence, or even to speak to the CPN recipient, before issuing the notice. People have received CPNs banning them from wearing a bikini in their garden, looking at their neighbours, entering the town centre, feeding birds in their garden, or using leather footballs in a school playground. If a person fails to appeal a CPN within a 21-day window…
Moira Macfarlane is a director at ACA Law in north London, with an extensive experience of defending clients who have received Community Protection Notices. In this interview, she says how CPNs are being issued as a ‘tick-box exercise’, and gives advice on legal aid for CPN appeals. What is your experience defending clients with CPNs? I regularly deal with CPNs at both the police station and court. It tends to be that I see the same people repeatedly. For example, one of my clients was recently dealt with for breach of a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO), he had been found with a…
Janine Green is a specialist in community safety and anti-social behaviour (ASB), and provides training and consultancy for organisations including councils, police and housing providers (https://www.janinegreenasb.co.uk/). She is interviewed here about the use of Community Protection Notices (CPNs) – on-the-spot legal orders that can impose significant restrictions on individuals’ liberties – and also about the government’s ASB Action Plan, which proposes to substantially increase penalties for violation of CPNs, and to allow them to be issued to children as young as 12. What is the problem with CPNs? While I have seen examples of CPNs being used to effectively and responsibly to…
1. What are CPNs? Community Protection Notices (CPNs) are powers contained in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, imposing legal restrictions or requirements upon individuals. Police and council officers can issue these notices without going through a court, if they…
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (aka the ‘Busybodies’ Charter’) has led to absurdities such as pensioners being fined for riding bicycles or feeding the birds, and bans on loitering or standing in groups. Now the government wants to amp…