|
The home secretary said he and the justice secretary, Jack Straw, wanted to help people being severely harassed or intimidated over a long time.
"We will explore what more can be done to speed this process up – in particular, how we can break down any barriers there might be between the courts and people bringing cases before them," he said. Better training was being looked at for "practitioners"' so they could present cases themselves in court, he said.
The Home Office was to create local antisocial behaviour "action squads" to help criminal justice workers deal with severe problems such as underage drinking on an estate or a troublesome family.
Websites are to be set up for people to report antisocial behaviour and avoid the never-ending circle of phone calls faced by some victims.
In the speech at Battersea Arts Centre, south London, Johnson said crime figures showing a 39% fall in offences since 1997 suggested there was no reason to engage in radical restructuring or fire a scattergun of new initiatives.
"The focus must be on listening to the public and looking at what practical steps need to be taken to make the current system, with all the powers and responsibilities that this government has introduced, respond to their concerns," he said.
He acknowledged that fear of crime was seriously debilitating if there were some streets or estates where people felt they couldn't step out after dark to the shopbecause they were fearful of the people they might find hanging around the stairwell or outside the off-licence.
The measures on antisocial behaviour are designed to tackle the fact that much troublesome and intimidating behaviour goes unreported because people feel guilty about bothering the authorities or worry they will not be taken seriously.
|
