Smith targets anti-social behaviour

Jacqui Smith has pledged to "turn the tables" on youths who ignore warnings to change their anti-social behaviour.

The home secretary used a speech on Thursday to urge the police to film persistent offenders and harass them at home to make their lives uncomfortable.

She encouraged officers to follow the example of the pilot Operation Leopard in Essex to give troublemakers "a taste of their own medicine".

The scheme involved "daily police visits to their homes, repeated warnings for the hardcore of troublemakers, relentless filming of them and their associates through the day and night", she said.

And she claimed it had "shown the strength that comes from putting neighbourhood policing into action", providing "exactly the sort of intensive policing that can bring persistent offenders to their senses".

"It created an environment where those responsible for anti-social behaviour had no room for manoeuvre and nowhere to hide," she added. "Where the tables were turned on offenders so that those who harassed our communities are themselves harried and harassed."

The move comes ahead of new statistics which are expected to show a fall in the number of anti-social behaviour orders being issued.

Smith also announced £250,000 of funding for an "action squad" to encourage greater take-up of early intervention measures.

And she said she wanted to "do more to support parents who struggle to keep their kids under control".

Smith praised "structured parenting programmes" but said too few parenting orders had been issued alongside Asbos.

She said more parents should get "the support they need to meet their responsibilities both to their children and to their community".

Asbos and parenting orders could have a "powerful deterrent effect" on an individual's behaviour, the home secretary argued.

And she pointed to figures showing that only seven per cent fail to "clean up their act" after a second and third intervention.

"But that's still too many," she added.