Police 'mindset' on yobs criticised

The Home Secretary warned of a "mindset" among some officers who ignore families besieged by yobs.

Launching a new crackdown, he criticised a senior officer involved in the Fiona Pilkington case who said complaints should be left to councils.

And he indicated fears of a wider problem with other forces neglecting to take action.

He said: "The Fiona Pilkington case just showed exactly why we need to return to this. A police officer saying at the inquest that anti-social behaviour is no longer a police matter, it's for local authorities, it's ludicrous and ridiculous. It's just totally unexplainable how a police officer could feel like that but it suggests there's a mindset there."

At the inquest into the death of Ms Pilkington, 38, and her 18-year-old daughter Francecca, Supt Steve Harrod from Leicestershire Police said town halls and not the police should deal with "low level" anti-social behaviour. The inquest jury found the force's failure to respond adequately contributed to their deaths. Ms Pilkington killed herself and her daughter by setting fire to their car in October 2007.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to see an improvement in standards within the next six months. By March next year police, councils and other agencies will be expected to reach a minimum standard in how they perform. He accepted ministers had "cruised" on the issue in the recent past and progress had "stalled" as the focus shifted to counter terrorism. But he pledged to issue new rules for how breaches of anti-social behaviour orders were handled to make sure they are taken seriously. In future, when an Asbo is breached by a young person, their parents will automatically be put under a court order. Victim Support services will be extended to all victims of anti-social behaviour who give evidence against their attackers in magistrates courts, he said.

Mr Johnson's comments provoked a furious reaction from the Police Federation, which represents frontline officers.

Vice chairman Simon Reed said: "The Government cannot have its cake and eat it. They introduce initiative after initiative and expect the service to plough resources into it, without considering the negative impact it may have on other policing functions.

"They introduced neighbourhood policing teams, who in the main deal with low-level disorder including anti-social behaviour, but fill these teams with CSOs who have no powers and experience to effectively deal with the problems. Anti-social behaviour is not just a policing problem - all agencies, whether it's the local authority, schools and parents, must play their part. To start, what is needed is a zero-tolerance approach, with sufficient police officers on the streets to tackle anti-social behaviour and a criminal justice system that actually does something about these offenders when we bring them to justice."