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CHAPTER 3 DISPERSAL LOCATIONS

3.1 This Chapter looks at the locations where dispersal powers were authorised in the first two and a half years of the powers (between October 2004 and April 2007.) It considers the types of behaviour that were commonly experienced in each of the locations and describes some of the social and geographical characteristics of each area as well as commonalities between people, place and conflict.

Information Sources

3.2 The Scottish Government monitors the use of dispersal powers through six-monthly statistical returns submitted by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS.) For the purpose of this research, the research team has regularly surveyed each of Scotland's 8 police forces to identify any new dispersal authorisations and to ensure that the research methodology could be modified as necessary to take account of these.

Dispersal Dates and Locations

3.3 Table 3.1 shows the local authority areas and police force areas where dispersal powers have been authorised so far (as of the end of March 2007.)

Table 3.1 Dispersal Locations

3.4 Dispersal powers have been used on 14 occasions in 11 separate locations. They have been used once in 9 of the 11 locations. In one location they have been used twice and in another they have been used 3 times. They were authorised 4 times in their first year, 10 times in the second year and none have been authorised, so far, in the first 6 months of the third year (to April 2007.) They have mainly been used in the summer and autumn (10 of the 14 dispersal zones have been authorised between the end of April and the end of September.) Fife Constabulary and Tayside Police are the only police force areas where dispersal powers have not been used

Location Profiles

3.5 The dispersal locations are described in the following section. These descriptions are based on accounts of residents, business owners, police, community representatives, and others who took part in the research.

Beach Boulevard, Aberdeen

Beach Boulevard is a stretch of road adjacent to sea-front attractions in Aberdeen which has traditionally been used as a gathering venue for young motorists (known as "Bouley Bashers") and their modified cars, motorbikes and scooters.

There had been a sharp rise in complaints to police in years before the dispersal powers were used and evidence that people were travelling from a wider area to congregate on the boulevard. Police statistics also confirmed that there had been a significant rise in recorded incidents in the months leading up to the authorisation of the dispersal powers.

The police have been aware of road traffic offences on the Boulevard including U-turns, dangerous driving and drivers mounting pavement areas at traffic lights. As well as these offences, local residents have complained about the general annoyance caused to them by the associated noise of revving engines, music and shouting especially when this occurs into the early hours of the morning. Vandalism and road traffic accidents were also seen by local people as being caused by the groups.

Dispersal powers were introduced in March 2005 for three months. Police decided that there was still evidence of significant, persistent and serious antisocial behaviour at the end of this time and the first authorisation period was followed immediately by another which ran until the end of August 2005.

Hunter Square, Edinburgh

Hunter Square is a pedestrian area in the centre of Edinburgh city centre. The Square houses restaurants, pubs, cafes and gift shops and there are outside seating areas for pedestrians and restaurant customers. There are also public toilets.

Residents and business owners have complained over the last 3-5 years, about the behaviour of groups of people typically aged 25-45, who have gathered in the square throughout the daytime to drink alcohol. They have complained about customers and passers-by being asked for money and physical/verbal assaults on business staff and customers. Police were also aware of drug taking and prostitution in the square. There were also problems in nearby residential areas where there have been reported problems with people under the influence of alcohol/drugs using tenement close areas for urination, drug taking and sleeping.

Police introduced dispersal powers in August 2005 and this was followed by another 3 month dispersal period immediately afterwards which ran until 31st January 2006. A third dispersal authorisation for Hunter Square was imposed between 5th June and 31st August 2006.

Dingwall, Highland

The area covered by the dispersal zone comprised of two parallel streets Millbank Rd and Chestnut Rd, of modern, mainly terraced houses.

Antisocial behaviour reportedly took place on Millbank Rd and in the adjacent woodland areas. Complaints were received about the behaviour of large groups of young people, (approximately 20 people) aged 15-18 who regularly gathered there to consume alcohol, and drive mini-motorbikes. Residents complained of finding beer bottles, used condoms and vomit on the steps of their houses and in surrounding areas. Residents also said they have also had their cars vandalised and tyres slashed.

Dispersal powers were authorised by police to run between 30th September and 29th December 2005.

Mid Calder, West Lothian

Mid Calder is a village on the outskirts of Livingston. The village is a relatively affluent, residential area and is made up of private housing estates and a centre that contains pubs, restaurants and other businesses.

Residents have complained to the police and the councillor about the numbers of young people who use the village centre, woodland areas and playgrounds to congregate. Accounts were given of groups of up to 60 young people congregating in the Village on weekend evenings, drinking alcohol, shouting and leaving litter throughout the village. The police became aware of an escalation in violence and the dispersal authorisation followed a violent assault.

Many residents spoke of the atmosphere of intimidation that was created by such large gatherings of young people even if this was an unintended effect.

Dispersal powers were introduced to run from 1st December 2005 to 28th February 2006.

St Michael's and St Andrew's Churches, Dumfries

In Dumfries, the leadership and members of two church congregations had been reporting incidents of vandalism and graffiti to police over a number of years. Both churches are located close to the town centre and have been used by local young people as areas to congregate. St Michael's Church of Scotland building has a large graveyard that contains the Burns Mausoleum where the remains of Robert Burns and his family are kept. Both churches are in relatively secluded areas and contain hidden places where local young people have congregated.

Church representatives have spoken about their constant need to remove drug and alcohol litter from Church grounds. The churches have also had broken stained glass windows and grave headstones. The Burns Mausoleum at St Michael's has been attacked and St Andrew's has had broken windows and vandalised property. Saturday evening mass at St Andrew's has been interrupted by young people entering the church.

Police introduced 2 separate dispersal authorisations for St Michael's and St Andrew's which both ran for three months between 30th April and 29th July 2006.

Station Car Park, Moffat and McJerrow Car Park, Lockerbie

Two car parks in Moffat and Lockerbie were the scene of congregations of "boy racers" aged 17-25 who met in the evenings. In both locations local residents were affected by the noise of the car engines, exhausts and stereo systems but also with the associated effects of the behaviour including litter, vandalism and intimidation.

The police authorised both car parks as dispersal zones for the 3 months following 28th August 2006.

Knightswood

An area of ground near the Forth and Clyde canal and close to a residential area was the scene of running battles between young gangs on weekend evenings. The area is on the boundary of gang territories and police had dedicated significant resources to policing the area over a long period. The police were aware that these fights were organised and many individuals carried weapons.

As well as the violence the perpetrators, mostly from other areas, broke fences, took short cuts through gardens and caused vandalism and litter. Local residents were heavily affected by the atmosphere of intimidation. The dispersal zone was designated from 1 September 2006 to 30th November 2006.

Sauchie

Sauchie is a residential area located close to Alloa. The police were aware of large gatherings of young people around bus shelters, shops and in the streets and persistent disorder involving public drinking, fighting, noise, drug abuse, urination, litter and vandalism to property. Many of the young people who caused the problem came from other areas including Alloa.

The police received large numbers of calls relating to incidents across the whole of Sauchie and decided to authorise dispersal powers over a large area. This ran from 18th September to 17th December 2006.

Dennistoun

Dennistoun is a residential and business area between the city centre and the east of the city. It is a busy part of the city with many types of businesses situated along the main thoroughfares including fast food outlets, 24-hour stores, off licenses, and other businesses. It is also a heavily residential area and many local residents had complained about the large numbers of young people who congregated in the streets and outside businesses. Common complaints included fighting, street drinking, drug misuse, noise and the general atmosphere of intimidation that was created by the presence of so many young people.

The police designated a dispersal zone covering a large part of the area including the main thoroughfare from 13th October 2006 for three months.

Size of Dispersal Areas

3.6 The size of dispersal areas varied from small areas between 2,000-3,000 square metres with no resident population to the largest dispersal areas in Mid Calder and Dennistoun that covered approximately 0.75-1.25 square kilometres and populations of between four and eight thousand people.

3.7 The boundaries of dispersal areas were chosen for strategic reasons and reflected the aims of the dispersal powers as the police conceived them. Some were small concentrated areas, as in the case of the two churches in Dumfries where the groups were responsible for mainly environmental damage: litter and vandalism. There the purpose of the powers was to move groups away from the seclusion and privacy of the churchyards. In other areas such as Dennistoun, Mid Calder, and Sauchie, the problems were more visible and less geographically specific. In these locations the boundaries were larger and designed to prevent the displacement of groups simply from one area to another. The decision where to put boundaries was heavily dependent on the specific topography of the location and police intelligence on the nature of the problem behaviour. Police considered the elements that attracted groups to the area and often targeted these when choosing where to designate boundaries e.g. seating areas, licensed off sales premises, public toilets, and bus stop shelters.

Antisocial Behaviour in Dispersal Locations

3.8 In most locations the behaviour was associated with groups of young people. Behaviour included late night noise, drunkenness, shouting, swearing and fighting, litter (including drug and alcohol litter), intimidation of passers-by, residents and business customers (whether intended or not) and environmental damage/vandalism of property.

3.9 In Aberdeen, Lockerbie and Moffat this disorder was caused by "boy racers" and their friends but the annoyance was ultimately expressed in the same way as noise, litter and intimidation.

3.10 Sometimes the antisocial behaviour became worse after residents attempted to intervene. Many of the people who took part in focus groups for this research said that they were frightened of complaining directly to the perceived perpetrators.

"If they make a comment to you, you daren't retaliate. If you ask them to move to let you pass, they give you verbal abuse, kick you or spit at you and some have later smashed in my windows in revenge." Focus group participant, Mid Calder

3.11 Often the reports were of behaviour that might constitute a breach of the peace but much of the annoyance arose out of the persistence of the behaviour and the atmosphere of intimidation created by large groups. On these occasions it was the groups' visibility and the proximity to residential areas that made the problems so significant.

3.12 On two occasions the police authorised dispersal powers to tackle different kinds of behaviour. In Hunter Square the complaints were about the behaviour of groups of street substance users aged 25-45, who met in the city centre each day to drink alcohol together. In Knightswood the disorder was caused by violent and organised youth gangs carrying weapons.

Social Characteristics of Dispersal Locations

3.13 The social characteristics of each dispersal location were compared at datazone level. Datazones are small-area statistical units that are used to provide neighbourhood-level statistics. They allow for a comparison of social-geographical information across a number of themes including, income, health, housing, and overall levels of deprivation as well as an approximation of the population, the tenure status and the age profile of each area.

3.14 Dispersal areas are custom geographies and do not map neatly onto datazones. For this study, the datazones that approximated the boundary of the dispersal area were chosen for analysis. In most locations this included more than one datazone. The two dispersal areas in Dumfries and the ones in Moffat and Lockerbie did not contain resident populations. For this purpose the datazone in which they are situated was included for analysis (St Michael's and St Andrew's Churches are in the same datazone.) Full methodology is contained in the Appendix.

Deprivation

3.15 The Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (Scottish Executive, 2006) provides a relative measure of multiple deprivation and ranks each of Scotland's 6505 datazones based on information collected on crime, education, geographic access, health, housing and income. These values are weighted and combined to create overall "deprivation ranks" from the most deprived datazone in Scotland (ranked 1) to the least (ranked 6505.) The SIMD rankings published in 2006 have been used for this report.

3.16 There have been few dispersal authorisations in multiply deprived areas. Of Scotland's most deprived 2168 datazones (the most deprived 15%) only 5 overlapped with dispersal zones. Dispersal powers were not used in any of Scotland's 5% most deprived datazones.

3.17 Table 3.2 shows the decile and rank of each datazone that corresponded with a dispersal location. Some of the larger dispersal areas contained more than one datazone.

Table 3.2 Deprivation in Dispersal Locations

3.18 The table shows that the areas where dispersal powers were used have a variety of levels of deprivation. Dennistoun, Knightswood, Dumfries and Sauchie were the most deprived areas but Mid Calder, Moffat, Aberdeen and Dingwall dispersal zones contained some of the least deprived datazones in Scotland. These statistics do not reveal much in common between the locations as expressed in their social profile. Links between areas were more commonly evident through descriptions of how the physical environment and the layout of physical spaces appeared to transform seemingly low-level antisocial behaviour into large-scale annoyance.

3.19 Some people suggested that groups of young people from nearby areas had been attracted towards the dispersal areas precisely due to their positive characteristics such as local services, street-lighting and green spaces.

"I live in one of the nicest parts of the city and we get constant complaints about violence…if someone said to you that they were considering a dispersal order there people would laugh…yet it seems to be an area where certain people intent on causing hassle will congregate." Housing Manager

Environmental Factors

3.20 The relationship between group behaviour and the physical setting where it occurred was regarded as being a critical factor by some interviewees. Geographical features of the setting appeared to amplify the effects of behaviour that might have not caused annoyance in another setting.

3.21 One of the most important factors mentioned among interviewees was topography and design. In each location, these were aggravating factors that exacerbated the disorder.

3.22 In Aberdeen, the length of the esplanade, the street lighting and the multiple parking spaces attracted young drivers late at night. In Edinburgh the raised seating area in Hunter Square made the problem more visible and heightened the sense of aggression. Local residents and businesses also mentioned the proximity to off licences, Methadone dispensing pharmacies and the accessible public lavatories in the Square. Mid Calder, Dingwall, and the two churches in Dumfries all offered accessible open spaces and seclusion.

3.23 The two churches in Dumfries had both recently undertaken police property surveys that had highlighted a number of design weak-points including enclosed and hidden spaces where groups were gathering. In Sauchie and Dennistoun the late-night hustle of chip shops, pubs, bookmakers and well-lit accessible areas were said to have attracted people to congregate. The dispersal area in Knightswood was authorised for a relatively isolated and hidden "no man's land": a patch of ground on the fault line between gang territories.

3.24 Often apparently minor topographical features were suggested as the catalysts for disorder. In one location a "good quality chip shop" was said to be one of the reasons why groups travelled into an area from another. In another location a small car park was unlocked during the evenings and this meant that it became a gathering place. The positions of streetlights, public toilets, bus shelters etc were regularly mentioned in the course of this study as reasons why groups congregated where they did rather than somewhere else.

Summary

3.25 It is difficult to draw conclusions about commonalities between a relatively small number of varied locations however the dispersal areas seemed often to share characteristics that attracted perpetrator groups towards the spaces. In the areas where young people were causing the problems the locations offered unguarded gathering areas. Sometimes these were near to shops, off licenses and bus routes; there were often hidden areas and networks of paths and streets.

3.26 It was not often the behaviour itself that was the problem, rather how it was felt by nearby residents. This depended on the physical layout of each area but also the tolerance levels and social expectations of residents. Further research on future authorisations of dispersal powers would allow these factors to be understood in more depth.

3.27 As well as the risk factors associated with design, problems appeared to be caused by a lack of perceived "protective factors" such as high-quality youth activities, community engagement through active community associations and neighbourhood watch schemes. These themes will be covered in later parts of the report.

3.28 Knightswood and Hunter Square, Edinburgh were locations with different types of problems. In these locations the dispersal powers fitted into wider police strategies designed to tackle the issues causes by of violent gangs and street substance users. The original consultation document "Putting our Communities First" asked for views on how the authorities might tackle antisocial behaviour problems caused by groups of "young people hanging around" but also other intimidating groups.

3.29 Dispersal powers were eventually introduced to be used by police to tackle a wider range of problem groups. These authorisations provide examples of police considering the powers as a way of dealing with other problem groups apart from young people and the powers are considered in later chapters for their effectiveness at tackling the antisocial behaviour of these other groups.

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