Community safety

Reducing crime and making the community safer is very important to Portsmouth City Council. We work together with Hampshire Constabulary, NHS Portsmouth, the Hampshire Fire Service, Hampshire Probation Trust, Portsmouth University and many other agencies including representatives from the community and the voluntary sector, under the name Safer Portsmouth Partnership.

Follow the links below for council help on the following, or visit Safer Portsmouth Partnership, if you are worried about:

• substance mis-use, such as drugs or alcohol
• domestic violence or hate crime
• a young person offending or what you can do if you are worried your child is being abused

We have a team of community wardens in the city to address anti-social behaviour and there are active Neighbourhood Watch Associations that you can get involved within your area.

On the Neighbourhood Watch page, you can follow a link to find out about crime figures in your area.

For general crime concerns, such as theft or burglary, contact the police at Hampshire constabulary.

If you’re interested in funding services and activities that reduce offending and reoffending, and provide support to victims and witnesses, follow the link to find out more about the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner’s commissioning plan.

Portsmouth has signed up to a Hampshire wide process called Community Triggers.

A community trigger gives victims and communities the right to request a review of their anti-social behaviour case and brings agencies together to find a resolution.

To use a community trigger, please phone Hampshire Police on the non-emergency 101 number.

Community triggers can be used:

• By individuals if they have made 3 complaints in the previous six months to report behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress members of the community either where no action has been taken, or if they’re not satisfied with the action taken.
• By groups if five individuals in a local community have reported separately similar incidents of anti-social behaviour to member of the community safety partnership if they all think that no action has been taken, or they’re not satisfied with the action taken. The individual acting on behalf of the group must have all other individual’s consent.

To meet the criteria for a community trigger, incidents need to:

• Have caused harassment, alarm or distress
• Be logged within one month of the incident and the last incident should have occurred within the previous six months.

Community safety partnerships aim to deal with Community Triggers within 20 working days, however more complex cases may take longer.

If you decide to activate a community trigger as a group or an individual you will be asked to supply your personal details including name, address and date of birth. You will also be asked what outcome you would like to see as a result.

For more information about Community Triggers contact the anti-social behaviour team on 023 9284 1777 or email asbu@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

We provide 24 hour CCTV coverage monitoring activities in the town centre and other areas. In the documents section below, you can download a map showing where Portsmouth’s CCTV cameras are located.

The council’s CCTV code of practice can also be downloaded below – Appendix F of the code includes application forms to find out what information, if any, is held about you on the CCTV System.

Your rights
Subject to certain exemptions, you have a right to be told whether any personal data is held about you.

You also have a right to a copy of that information in a permanent form except where the supply of such a copy is not possible or would involve disproportionate effort, or if you agree otherwise. Portsmouth City Council will only give that information if it is satisfied as to your identity. If release of the information will disclose information relating to another individual(s), who can be identified from that information, the Council is not obliged to comply with an access request unless:

• The other individual has consented to the disclosure of information, or
• It is reasonable in all the circumstances to comply with the request without the consent of the other individual(s)

The council’s rights
Portsmouth City Council may deny access to information where the Act allows. The main exemptions relating to information held on the CCTV System are where the information may be held for:

• Prevention and detection of crime
• Apprehension and prosecution of offenders

And giving you the information may be likely to prejudice any of these purposes.

Prevent is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism.

The Prevent duty is part of CONTEST, the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

For much more information on the Prevent strategy please visit the Prevent pages on saferportsmouth.org.uk.

Follow the link for information on discreet, non-judgemental support for male and female sex workers in Portsmouth.