Good afternoon everyone,

We wanted to talk to you a little more about Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs), and how they are helping us to address shoplifting and anti-social behaviour in the city.

A CBO is one of many tools available to us in tackling anti-social behaviour and associated criminality, and can be issued in conjunction with a sentence at court. The order prohibits a person from doing certain things in order to help reduce their offending. Before an order is imposed the offender must have engaged in behaviour that caused, or was likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress. Breaching a CBO is an arrestable offence and can result in further prison time.

CBOs assist us particularly in cases of repeated shoplifting and ASB, as it gives us another avenue to ensure that repeat offenders are efficiently and quickly held accountable for their actions.

A recent example of this in Portsmouth has come from Operation Nautical, which is our response to anti-social behaviour along the seafront in the summer months. A 16-year-old boy from Portsmouth was previously sentenced to time in prison for repeated criminality and anti-social behaviour under this operation. Following his release from prison he has been found to have been in breach of his CBO twice, resulting in his return to prison for a period of four months.

We know that some may see this sentence as short, but we hope that it reassures the local community that we will continue to take action and explore and implement other options – such as this CBO – to prevent further offending and the misery it brings to the lives of Portsmouth residents.

Repeated anti-social behaviour and associated criminality has a considerable impact on local businesses and the wider community, which is why we will continue to relentlessly pursue those responsible.

We ask  the community to please keep reporting incidents of anti-social behaviour to us, so that we can continue to work with partners to address these behaviours, and take appropriate action against any criminal offences.