 
A group of 15 Young People arranged to meet the local PCSOs to ask questions, here are the young people's questions and the PCSO’s responses.
Why do the police take such a long time to respond?
One of the main reasons is that the police in the Portslade area have limited resources and staff.
On average Portslade, Hove and Hangleton receive 4,000 calls a day, but at any one time only 7 Police Officers are available. It also depends on the nature of the call as to the level of priority it will be given – a ‘Grade 1’ call, for example assault, will be given a 3-minute response time. A ‘Grade 4’ call however, for example parking issues, will be given a response time of several days.
The police have targets that need to be met. If these targets aren’t met, and response time falls below standard, investigations will be made.
Who causes the worst problems in Portslade?
The majority are young people. The ‘hotspots’ are the areas of Boundary and Station Roads. The problems are anti-social behaviour, conducted mainly by 15 and 16 year-olds. Shoplifting and handbag theft is also an issue, but this behaviour is conducted by early to mid-twenty year-olds.
One of the biggest problems is that young people from other areas are coming into Portslade.
This could eventually result in a Dispersal Order.
Why do you mind if we are in groups? We generally stay in groups for safety.
The reason is mainly because large groups of young people can appear to be quite intimidating, particularly to more vulnerable members of society such as the elderly. Litter is also quite a big problem – as can be seen on Hove Park on a Saturday morning. Generally, groups of 10 or more people will be politely asked to move on.
Why do you focus so much on young people?
The main reasons stem from the perception of young people. A group of young people are generally thought to be more intimidating, and more likely to cause problems of harassment than others.
The police don’t like to ‘pick on’ young people, but the bottom line is that a lot of calls that the police receive are concerned with young people. The police have to respond to those calls.
In terms of young people being a major focus in the media, the problem is that they are ‘easy targets’. They are often used as scapegoats – they make for an easy and interesting read in the papers.
Why do known offenders get chance after chance, allowing them to constantly re-offend?
This unfortunately is out of police hands. The problem lies in court processes and lenient sentencing. The only involvement the police have is giving evidence. Even then though, incidents are often difficult to prove – particularly anti-social behaviour.
What and where is the worst place on a Friday night?
1. Boundary Road: general anti-social behaviour, the problem being that there are a lot of people from different areas coming together.
2. The Village: the introduction of the bus stop has made problems a lot worse. There is also a problem of car-crime, speeding and dangerous driving.
Do adults coming out of pubs cause problems?
Yes. Younger adults, particularly aged 20-25 cause problems in terms of fighting, and being drunk and disorderly. Too much alcohol for any age group is going to cause problems.
When you move young people on, where do you move them to?
This is one of the biggest problems – there is nowhere to move them on to, as at the moment there is nowhere for young people to go. The police often get caught in a vicious cycle of moving people on, who then later re-group which results in them being moved on again.
What can we do to help the problem?
Contact the media to ensure that positive things that young people do get as much coverage as the negative things. Promote things such as your Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
Young people need to try and change their attitudes towards the police – in general young people are unnecessarily hostile towards the police.
“Behaviour breeds behaviour”
April 2007
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