Community Safety Patrol Officers

Community Safety Patrol Officers (CSPO) aim to improve the wellbeing of local residents by helping to make people feel safer. The focus of the service is to reduce anti-social behaviour affecting people and places.

Anti-social behaviour is described by law as conduct which has caused or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person. There are many different types of antisocial behaviour, such as rowdy, threatening or intimidating behaviour, graffiti, vandalism and begging to environmental crimes such as littering, fly tipping and dog fouling. The Council will not tolerate antisocial behaviour and it will use its range of powers to take the most appropriate action to address it.

Community Safety Patrol Officers aim to reduce antisocial behaviour affecting people and places by:

• Carrying out highly visible patrols in uniform to tackle and deter antisocial behaviour, crime and disorder as well as providing reassurance to local communities.
• Working closely with local communities and partner agencies, such as local residents and businesses, community groups, housing associations, the police and other partners to tackle anti-social behaviour in partnership.
• Taking a robust approach when dealing with those committing environmental crimes, such as dog fouling, litter and fly-tipping.
• Encouraging and empowering residents to take ownership of their communities and report environmental and anti-social behaviour issues to the relevant agencies.
• Organising various campaigns to address issues of antisocial behaviour affecting local communities.

Find out what else our CSPOs do by watching the short video below:

CSPOs are accredited under the Hampshire Constabulary Community Safety Accreditation Scheme and are authorised to use the following powers:

1. To require name and address.
2. To require name and address for anti-social behaviour.
3. To require persons aged under 18 to surrender alcohol.
4. To seize tobacco from a person under 16.
5. To remove abandoned vehicles.
6. To stop cycles.
7. To issue fixed penalty notice for cycling on a footpath.
8. To issue fixed penalty notice for fly-posting.
9. To issue fixed penalty notice for littering.
10. To issue PND for throwing fireworks.
11. To require name and address for road traffic offences.
12. To control traffic for purposes other than escorting a load of exceptional dimensions