Trick or Treat?

Steve today released a poster to help people who do not want to be worried by Trick or Treaters. He said,

'For many it is a lot of fun, but a significant number of people get concerned by a knock on the door after dark. Those who don't want to be disturbed deserve to be respected and to help everyone putting a poster in the window saves a lot of problems. There are posters on the Norfolk Police website but this one I borrowed and posted as it is a bit less complicated and may better suit those with less fancy printers.'

Click here to download the trick or treat poster

Press Releases

Recent article in EEN - Good reasons to scrap PCC elections (click to download the text)

Recent letter to EEN - This is not the way to police (click to download the text)

Steve responds to government proposal on ASBO's

Letter printed in the Norwich Evening News - Friday May 25th 2012

Dear letters editor

I have no problem with streamlining how anti social behaviour is tackled. It's not an easy problem - better tools hopefully bring results. Until we see the detail, passing judgement would be premature but on the face of it changing the names and scope of the orders misses the point, and triggers could be counter productive.

Asbos have been useful. The problem is enforcing them if the person concerned flouts the order. Enforcement requires police resources and the support of the courts.

I can't see anything in the new proposals that suggests these problems are being tackled. The police are not going to prosecute where neighbours lodge spurious complaints and judges will not convict on insufficient evidence. Numbers shouldn't be a trigger - if one person has a genuine complaint they deserve the right to their peace of mind. Often a problem can be dealt with a quiet word rather legal action but if it is serious it needs immediate attention it shouldn't require triggers to get the police involved.

Responding to problems likely to be taken to the police under these proposals will add a lot to their workload. Imposing huge cuts in police resources at the same time as demanding more from them flies in the face of common sense.

One way of dealing with things that are 'too difficult' is to redefine the problem and give it more serious sounding name as a way of avoiding really getting to grips with finding a solution. These proposals have the hallmarks of such an approach. I hope that won't be the case when the details emerge as we need to try to protect every victim of anti social behaviour from the fear and disruption it causes. It will take more than a name change and high rhetoric to convince me.

Steve Morphew