RSA calls for public to be trained to deal with anti-social behaviour

Authored by Ben Rogers, a former policy strategist for Downing Street and the Department for Communities and Local Government, the report argues Britain is perceived to have some of the highest levels of anti-social behaviour in Europe, with the public seeing the main cause of the problem as young people.

He writes that the physical presence of police is always going to be limited but if public skills and confidence to manage low-level disorder can be boosted, community safety would "dramatically" improve.

The report states: "While public concern for low-level disorder remains high, citizens have, for a number of reasons, withdrawn from day-to-day intervention. At the same time, policy has tended to focus on top-down, professionally centred approaches to tackling the problem.

"There could be great gains in taking a different approach – modelled on first aid – where people, including those with direct responsibility for managing the local public realm, are trained in basic community safety skills. Giving people the capacity to respond to anti-social behaviour and defuse conflict could, if pursued alongside continuing support for other forms of community policing, help reduce the problem and people’s concerns, while bringing wider benefits."

Rogers argues that frontline workers already trained in some sort of community safety, including school staff, social workers and public transport workers, could make a large contribution to maintaining local order.

But he believes other members of the pubic with influence in local communities, such as shopkeepers, publicans and postal workers, could also be armed with skills to intervene in certain situations.