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How to report antisocial behaviour

Find out about antisocial behaviour, like verbal abuse, drug and alcohol related nuisances, vandalism or graffiti, how to report it and where to get support if you’ve been affected.

About antisocial behaviour

Antisocial behaviour (ASB) is unacceptable; it can affect communities in different ways and can have negative impacts on people’s lives including causing people to move home or take time off work. Everyone has a right to feel safe in the place that they live, visit, travel, and work in.

What is antisocial behaviour

Antisocial behaviour refers to actions, conduct, or behaviours that go against societal norms, rules, or laws and often harm or disregard the well-being of others. It involves behaviours that are disruptive, aggressive, harmful, or disrespectful towards individuals, communities, or the general public. ASB manifests in various forms and can occur at different levels of severity.

Examples of antisocial behaviour (not limited to):

  • abusive behaviour, verbal abuse and harassment
  • intimidating groups taking over public spaces
  • vandalism, graffiti and fly-posting
  • noise nuisance
  • fly-tipping and dumped rubbish
  • abandoned cars
  • nuisance neighbours
  • aggressive begging (please note that rough sleeping alone is not considered ASB. Visit the help if you are homeless or becoming homeless page to get more information on how to support a person who is homeless/rough sleeping).
  • antisocial street drinking
  • drug/substance misuse

The dealing of drugs is a serious criminal offence and needs to be reported to the police in the first instance. You can report this to the police by:

Where appropriate, the council works with police and other partners to deal with the range of ASB issues related to the misuse of drugs. However, the police are the main partner for drug-related issues.

ASB can be challenging to define and some behaviours (although may be perceived as annoying) are not classed as antisocial. These include:

  • children playing in the street or communal areas - unless they are causing damage to property.
  • young people gathering socially - unless they are rowdy, inconsiderate and/or being intimidating or causing damage to property.
  • being unable to park outside your own home.
  • DIY - unless these are taking place late at night or early in the morning.
  • disagreements over boundary walls, fences and parking.
  • cooking smells.
  • noise from opening and closing cupboards.
  • noisy washing machines and toilets being flushed

The role of Kingston Council

In most cases the community safety service does not deal directly with the public, but works with the police and other agencies to address high risk problem behaviour.

The community safety service liaises with Councillors, MPs, community groups, internal and external partners to advise on best practices. In most cases, we work with the Police and other agencies to address high-risk problem behaviour using a multi-agency approach.

If an individual or a location becomes the subject of multiple reports, agencies will work together to try and address the problem and ensure that cases are dealt with fairly and effectively through the use of Community MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference). A Community MARAC is a process that centres around a multi-agency problem-solving meeting that jointly considers how antisocial behaviour can be investigated and resolved.

It is important you report antisocial behaviour to the correct body (council, social housing, Police etc.) to ensure the correct response.

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014) provides local authorities, the police and other local agencies with powers and tools to respond effectively to reports of antisocial behaviour. Dependant on the circumstances, interventions include (not limited to):

For further information you can look at the antisocial behaviour policy

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