A new scheme to combat antisocial behaviour and allow victims to choose how first time offenders pay back into the community has seen success in Cardiff.
The Diversionary Activity Response Team (DACT) aims to engage with young people at an early stage of problematic behaviour.
Sarah Manley from the Community Safety Partnership spoke to Ely residents at last night's PACT meeting about the scheme. She said the team targets both first offenders when they are arrested for an offence as well as working with those causing antisocial behaviour in the community.
The Triage project was brought to Cardiff after seeing success in London – it is a Home Office funded scheme which works with young people when they are arrested for the first time. The scheme started in Cardiff in December 2010 and since then 83 young people have been referred from the police, out of which only four did not engage with the scheme.
The team looks at the reasons for their behaviour and, when a young person is brought in for an offence, they seek the views of victims involved as to how they should best pay back into the community.
Manley said:
"We want to engage with victims too. We ask what they want to happen, whether that's a letter of apology, a face to face meeting or a case of paying back by working in the community."
The antisocial behaviour scheme in Cardiff steps in to work with the police when a young person has received their second warning letter for disrupting a community.
The team will go on to set up an acceptable behaviour contract which lasts for six months and is based on certain conditions. Out of 106 referrals from the police since December, the team are currently working with 50 young people.
Manley said ASBOs were not given out freely in Cardiff - aiming to step in before this measure. It is more common for a CRASBO to be given out in court – an ASBO in conjunction with a criminal offence.
Do you find antisocial behaviour a problem in your community? Do you like the idea of having a say in how a young person pays back? Tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.
