Gwent Police has issued three dispersal orders in Caerphilly and Penyrheol this weekend in a bid to deal with anti-social behaviour.
The orders give police and PCSOs the power to move people on from designated areas if they are suspected of anti-social behaviour and arrest individuals should they return.
The first dispersal order covers Heol Aneurin in Penyrheol, with a 400 metre radius of Top Stores and the Fish Bar including, all streets, alleyways and thoroughfares.
The order runs from 5pm today, July 3, until 5pm on Sunday July 5.
The second order runs from 7pm today until 7pm Sunday July 5 and covers Cardiff Road, Bartlett Street, White Street, Market Street, St Martin’s Road, Station Terrace, including the bus station, Salop Street, Van Road, Broomfield Street, Twyn car park and centre, Windsor Road, Penterbane Street, Stockland Street, Bradford Street, Ludlow Street, St Fagan’s Street, Park Lane, Crescent Road, Claude Road, King Edwards Terrace, Railway Terrace, Rhymney Terrace and Castle Court Shopping Centre, including all adjoining and unnamed lanes, alleyways, thoroughfares and car parks and all of Caerphilly Castle’s Grounds.
The third order will cover Druids Close, Fffordd, Penrhos, Knight’s Walk, Skomer Island Way, Skomer Way, the area known as Castle View Shopping Centre, Cae Meillion and all footways, highways, playing fields, playgrounds and land abutting any of the above locations.
It starts at 6pm today, July 3 and runs until 6pm on Sunday July 5.
“The orders give police and PCSOs the power to move people on from designated areas if they are suspected of anti-social behaviour and arrest individuals should they return.” Why don’t the Police have these powers at all times and in all locations?
It’s a good question, when I was a teenager in the 1970’s police used to routinely move us from where we congregated.
That was a `Police Officer` Rich, The problem today is that the streets are under the control of Community Support Officers, and the youngsters who cause the problems, in large groups, rampaging through the town and other ares, all know that these Gwent Police Staff cannot do anything at all to control them or to move them on, the reason being, even a police officer with the power to do so has to be convinced and be able to prove, that the congregated group either have, or intend, to commit a criminal offence. These Dispersal orders actually make that decision for them.
And they work,
Yes they do work, and you are probably right in saying that there is a reluctance on the part of the police to move the youngsters on unless they have reasonable grounds for suspecting criminal activity. A dispersal order ensures that the officer is acting on behalf of a court of law, which absolves the police from having to collect evidence before taking action.
This brings to mind another way that police used to disperse groups. In the miner’s strike of 1984 an old law called “Watching and Besetting” was used against pickets who, whilst committing no crime, were standing on public rights of way outside the gates of power stations. The hundreds of years old watching an besetting law was invoked on more than one occassion. I wonder if this law is still on the statutes?
Is that what these are? The police have to do paperwork to designate a geographical area as a dispersal area in order to disperse people from that area should they see fit and not just be able to disperse people anyway?
I obviously didn’t quite understand the last time this was reported on. What a stupid bureaucratic mess we’ve contorted ourselves into.