Doncaster officers issue more dispersals than most police authorities

A small group of Doncaster Council officers are issuing more dispersal notices than most police authorities.

In 2023, the council’s ‘City Centre Engagement Officers‘ issued 504 orders to people to leave Doncaster city centre for 24 hours. The officers counted 90 breaches, and issued 12 fixed penalty notices for breach.

Data from police authorities in the year up to July 2023 found that only four authorities – Hampshire (990 dispersals), Northumbria (833), Norfolk (753), and the Metropolitan Police (522) – issued more dispersal notices than these council officers. The 14 other police authorities able to provide the information issued fewer dispersals than Doncaster Council, although they had a far larger number of officers.

South Yorkshire Police has 3059 police officers but issued only 263 dispersals, while Derbyshire Police has 3800 officers but issued only 130 dispersals. Indeed, 11 police authorities – representing around 30,000 officers – together issued a total of 509 dispersals, around the same number as this small group of City Center Engagement officers.

Dispersal powers proper are reserved for the police, but some councils have given their officers dispersal powers by including this as a condition in a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). Our most recent survey found that 28 councils had given their officers PSPO dispersal powers.

For example, the Doncaster PSPO specifies:

No return within 24 hours if asked to leave. No person shall, after being requested to leave by an authorised officer due to them behaving in a manner causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm, distress, nuisance or annoyance to any person within the city Centre without reasonable excuse, remain or return to the city Centre within a period of 24 hours.

The prohibition on a person entering their city centre represents a significant restriction on their liberty, and could interfere with work and family life, or in the case of a homeless person their ability to access shelter or food. Yet here it is being issued on the grounds of a council officer’s opinion than somebody is ‘likely to cause nuisance or annoyance to any person’.

Unfortunately, these dispersals are likely to increase, as Doncaster Council is currently advertising for an additional five officers, with the deadline for applications ending just before Christmas. The advert says that officers will be ‘making effective use of civil and criminal legislation’ in order to address anti-social and ‘unseemly’ behaviour in the city centre.

The extension of dispersal powers to councils bypasses certain protections that exist for police dispersal powers, including: that dispersal powers be authorised by a police inspector in a specified area for no more than 48 hours; that the direction must be given in writing; that a person cannot be prevented from accessing a place of work, home, or taking part in political activity such as picketing or a public demonstration, or from exercising their freedom of speech.

This means that council officers are able to bar people from public spaces on a far lower standard, and without the restrictions that exist for police officers. They therefore have a greater power to decide who can remain in a public space and who should be asked to leave.

The power to bar people from a public space such as a city centre is a very serious power, which should be used rarely if at all. If somebody is committing a crime, they should be arrested and charged; if they have not committed a crime, they should be allowed to remain. The dispersal power certainly should not be invoked by red-jacketed council officers, who suspect that you might be about to annoy somebody.