Camden New Journal - News: ‘Ineffective’ dispersal zones grow

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Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 23 August 2007

Cllr Anna Stewart

‘Ineffective’ dispersal zones grow

More powers for police

THE Town Hall has expanded the use of dispersal zones – the strategy of giving police the power to break up crowds of people – despite finding in its own research that there is “very little” evidence they are effective.
Liberal Democrat community safety chief Councillor Ben Rawlings said that there was strong public support for the zones.
Inside the marked areas, groups of two or more people can be moved on by police. The latest zone has been set up in a slice of Camden Town and Kentish Town in the Cantelowes ward and brings the number of targeted areas across the borough to seven.
Cllr Anna Stewart, leader of the Labour opposition, said: “The problem is that they could leave dispersal zones very stretched.”
There were only three zones in operation in January when a council committee recruited by the Lib Dem and Conservative coalition ruled that “several of the new powers – for example, powers of dispersal – are area-based and we have found that very little is available in terms of data or analysis about their operation or effectiveness other than anecdotally”.
Cllr Rawlings said: “There wasn’t much in the way of evidence when the report was written, but each new one has seen a few more improvements in their way of working, to make dispersal part of a holistic plan with other measures. Residents in these areas say they want them.”
He stressed that the zones were a police power and that the Town Hall played the role of approving them.
Camden police, who have made the applications for new zones, insist that both residents and businesses have been “overwhelmingly supportive”.
PC Dylan Belt, Camden police’s Anti-Social Behaviour Co-ordinator, said: “Dispersals are effective because police have the power to act in a preventative manner, dispersing groups of two or more when their behaviour is either intimidating, alarming or distressing to others. Indeed, police ultimately can prohibit someone from returning to a dispersal area for 24 hours. To date, Camden Police have issued over 2,000 dispersal directions and not one formal complaint has been received.”

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