Police working to keep night time economy safe

Police have recently launched an operation to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in the town's night time economy.

Operation Attitude has been in place for the past three months and has proactively targeted those who want to cause issues in the town centre.

Herts Police have increased their presence and is working with the district council, licensees, door staff, street pastors and St John’s Ambulance to make the town a safer place to enjoy a night out.

Alongside this, the introduction of a dispersal order has enabled officers to utilise powers to keep people away from the town centre whenever necessary.

Since the beginning of December, a total of 40 people have been banned from entering licensed premises in the town, through Pubwatch’s Behave or be Banned (BOBB) scheme. The initiative means that anyone who gets barred from one premises will automatically be banned from all Pubwatch member premises for a set period of time, depending on the severity of the offence.

Of the 40 banned, 10 have been banned for a five year period and one has been given a lifetime ban. A further seven people have been sent warning letters.

Sergeant Clare Ramirez, from the East Herts Community Safety Unit, said: "Hertford has a busy night time economy and we welcome those that want to come to town and behave. The work that my team are carrying out is to identify the small minority of those who don’t want to act sensibly and prevent them from coming back. Their actions often cause misery for others and this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.

"We have previously worked hard to have Scannet installed in seven of the town’s larger venues, which allows licensees and police to identify offenders more easily. We are also rolling out a new initiative called Licensing SAVI*, along with vulnerability training for all those involved in the night time economy, to help them identify vulnerable people and keep them safe.

"I want to thank the licensees and our partners for doing all they can to make the night time economy a safe place for all."