The Wensley estate in Fir Vale is like a “ghost town”, according to a local resident, due to a 9pm to 6am curfew on young people aged 16 and under, and a power invoked under section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, which allows the police to move on any groups of two or more people loitering on the estate. Police can take young people home, or if home is not safe, to another safe place such as a local authority home or police station.
The measures are the result of extensive consultation with local residents, including young people, according to Superintendent John Brennan. He told the Messenger they follow on from Operation Detox 5, into drug dealing and violent crime, which has been “a major success”. Over 60 arrests were made in a period of three weeks, and large quantities of drugs and weapons were seized, including guns, knives, and a crossbow.
The curfew and section 30 order are “a last resort”, Supt Brennan said, and the police were using these drastic powers sparingly. They have made only one arrest, of a youth refusing to comply with the curfew.
Supt Brennan agreed that much of the crime would be displaced to other areas, and said the police were under no illusion that they would eradicate drug dealing in this way. Drug abuse is a social problem, rather than a crime problem.
Alex Gask, a solicitor at human rights organisation Liberty, told us that they believe “the imposition of a 9pm to 6am curfew on all under 16s in a particular area is unlawful,” because it is an interference with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (now part of English law under the Human Rights Act), which guarantees everyone a right to respect for her or his private life. The police can interfere with this right to prevent disorder or crime, but to deprive a whole section of the community of this right, when the majority of them are not committing any crime, is unlawful, Liberty argues. Liberty would like to challenge the legality of the curfew in the High Court by taking a test case, and invite anyone who believes their rights under Article 8 to have been infringed, to contact them on 020 7403 3888.