Front-line police can negotiate on orders

The consultation process over anti-social
behaviour orders does not have to include a senior police officer,
the high court has ruled.

Front-line officers can negotiate
with council housing officers about the drawing up of the
orders.

West
Midlands Police appealed after a district judge threw out an
application for an order against five youths because a
superintendent had not been involved in the consultation. Jason
Beer for the police told the court: “The learned judge attached too
much importance to rank rather than the desirability of having an
officer with ground-level knowledge consult on the
applications.”

However, a commander of an
operational command unit must still be involved in the initial
stages of drawing up an application.

The
application against five youths, aged between 14 and 16 years old
and alleged to be terrorising Birmingham’s Ladywood Estate, was
sent back to Birmingham Magistrates Court for
reconsideration.