Smith says police should harass young thugs

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said on Thursday police should turn the tables on young thugs who terrorise neighbourhoods by filming and harassing them at home.

She wants officers to target the seven percent of offenders who continually engage in anti-social behaviour, with extra checks to see if dues like their road tax and TV licences have been paid.

"If persistent offenders know they're able to get away with it, then they will, by definition, persistently offend. They will try it on again and again," Smith said in a speech.

"We need to send them a strong message that we're not having it."

Tackling anti-social behaviour, which is estimated to cost the country more than 3 billion pounds a year, has been a major issue for the government since Labour won power in 1997.

But former Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted last year that he had been wrong to believe the issue could be resolved simply by investing in run-down neighbourhoods.

In her speech, Smith defended ASBOs, one of the government's innovations to tackle yobs but dismissed by critics as ineffective, saying they have proved a valuable tool in ensuring people do not have to suffer from yobs in silence.

A recent National Audit Office report found that more than half of offenders given the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders break the terms of them and that there has been no analysis of what measures are the most effective in dealing with louts.

Smith admitted fewer ASBOs are now being issued, with a shift to other "early intervention" methods such as parenting orders which put a "stop to the problem" before an ASBO is needed.

In the latest crackdown, Smith wants police forces to copy "Operation Leopard, an idea developed by officers in Essex.

The scheme saw police follow known troublemakers around an estate for four days, photographing and searching them and their associates.

Burglaries, criminal damage and car crime stopped completely during the course of the operation and there have been few incidents since, Essex police said.

Officers said the aim was not to target kids hanging around on street corners but those responsible for vandalism, vehicle crime and burglary.

"Operation Leopard is exactly the sort of intensive policing that can bring persistent offenders their senses - involving daily police visits to their homes, repeated warnings for the hard core of trouble-makers, and relentless filming of them and their associates throughout the day and night," Smith said.

"It creates an environment where those responsible for anti-social behaviour have no room for manoeuvre and nowhere to hide, where the tables are turned on offenders so that those who harass our communities are themselves harried and harassed."