Published on Thursday 11 March 2021
As part of a drive to make Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole safer and bring back a sense of pride to the area, BCP Council is investing £240,000 on six additional Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) officers.
These CSAS officers are part of the council’s plan to prioritise and support an enhanced response as part of their Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign that brings forward initiatives that really matter to residents in order to maximise on the positivity and pride across the conurbation.
The council currently has eight CSAS officers working across all three towns to tackle street-based anti-social behaviour such as begging, street drinking and discarded needles. This additional support will see a further six uniformed patrol officers with delegated powers from the Chief Constable.
BCP Council has a multi-agency arrangement with all relevant agencies to roll out our CSAS programme. The council’s CSAS officers have delegated powers which include the authority to require the name and address for those acting anti-socially or begging and the power to remove alcohol from those under 18 and confiscate it from those acting anti-socially. In addition, they will work closely alongside the council’s services commissioned to tackle rough sleeping and substance misuse, engaging with the appropriate individuals and sign-posting or making appropriate referrals to support agencies.
Councillor May Haines, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety commented:
"We are dedicated in our approach to tackling street-based anti-social behaviour and I am delighted that we are investing in six additional CSAS officers to work across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to make our communities feel safer as part of our Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign.
"We are the tenth-largest urban local authority in England and our communities are vibrant and diverse, with an outstanding quality of life where everyone plays an active role. We want to ensure that Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole is a safe place to live in, work in and visit and in addition to the enhanced CCTV camera rollout that the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset recently allocated us funding for, these new officers, once trained, will help to bring a real sense of pride to our area."