Improving the power of exclusion notices
The Brighton & Hove BCRP is strengthening its exclusion notice scheme by employing the power of Community Protection Notice [CPN] legislation for persistent offenders.
Currently members report incidents about offenders to the BCRP office and the incident is logged on our database and awarded a number of points based on criminal sentencing guidelines. At the same time the offender is sent a warning letter making it clear that continued bad behaviour will result in a ban. A recent study by Gloucester University found that for 76% of offenders this was enough to deter them from reoffending.
For those that do not heed the warning, when a certain threshold of points is reached the offender is issued with an exclusion notice banning him/her from all our member’s premises for a period of 12 months. Once again the Gloucester study found that 36% of offenders in receipt of an exclusion notice do not reoffend but for those that do an additional sanction is needed.
The BCRP intends to monitor the reoffending of those in receipt of an exclusion notice and if it is persistent the details will be reported to Sussex Police with a request that they consider issuing a CPN. These are legal notices aimed at preventing unreasonable behaviour that is having a negative impact on the local community's quality of life. Any person aged 16 years or over can be issued with a notice and it will require the behaviour to stop and if necessary reasonable steps to be taken to ensure it is not repeated in the future.
Police officers, local authorities and PCSOs can issue CPNs but before doing so they must consider two things; whether the conduct is having a detrimental effect on the community's quality of life and also, whether the conduct is considered unreasonable. The individual must be given a written warning beforehand stating that if the behaviour doesn't cease, the notice will be issued.
Failing to comply with a CPN is a criminal offence. On conviction, a magistrates' court (or youth court if the perpetrator is aged 16 or 17) can:
fine the perpetrator
order the perpetrator to carry out remedial work
make a forfeiture order requiring any specified item be handed over to the police, local authority or designated person
order the seizure of specified items.
A failure to comply with a court order constitutes contempt of court and can lead to imprisonment.