FOUR teenagers who have abused and vandalised Nottingham buses have agreed to better their behaviour after signing Acceptable Behaviour Contracts with police.
In just over a month, police and Nottingham City Transport have identified four juveniles caught causing damage to NCT buses. All have been visited at home and have, with their parents, signed Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs).
ABCs are essentially informal contracts by which low-level offenders agree to improve their behaviour. The contracts are aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour rather than tackling people with entrenched criminal lifestyles.
However, if an ABC is breached over a 12 month monitoring period, the breach can be used as evidence in an application for a more serious Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO).
“ABCS are an important weapon in our armoury,” said Andy Maltby, an inspector with NCT who works with public transport beat manager PC Derek Pickering to enforce the behaviour contracts.
“They’re aimed at low level anti-social behaviour rather than those with a history of a criminal lifestyle,” said PC Pickering. “Nevertheless, if they are breached it could lead to a caution or an arrest. A few years later that would be on your record when you went for a job.”
The four teenagers were all aged 14 or 15. In one incident, a boy damaged seats on a bus. In another, a boy was verbally abusive to a driver and threw fizzy drink over him.
In a third incident, two girls scrawled graffiti on the inside of a bus.
Images of all the juveniles were caught on bus CCTV. Each of their schools were subsequently approached and supplied the teenagers’ names and addresses.
With this information, home visits were made where parents or guardians were also present. CCTV images of the incidents were shown as evidence and the nature of the ABCs explained. The contracts were signed by the teenagers, parents/guardians, PC Pickering and Mr Maltby on behalf of NCT.
“All of the teenagers apologised profusely for their behaviour,” said Mr Maltby.
In the case of the two teenage girls, NCT also billed their parents for the £92.80 cost of cleaning the graffiti. The parents agreed to share the cost. But failure to pay damage costs in other cases could lead to civil proceedings.
ABCs are now just one of the many methods being used in the campaign to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour on Nottingham’s public transport system.
Police and transport operators are increasingly co-ordinating their efforts and clamping down on offenders using ABCs, ASBOs, criminal prosecutions and unannounced Gateway checks on buses and trams.
The campaign is supported by Respect for Transport, which aims to increase use of public transport in Nottingham by reducing actual and perceived levels of crime and disorder on trams and buses.
|
