Targeting known ‘hot-spots’ around Birmingham, the undercover officers will use high-tech surveillance techniques to catch offenders in the act.
Tackling anti-social behaviour is the key element of the Government’s Respect campaign. To coincide with the anniversary of Respect being launched, Birmingham is named as one of 40 locations where multi-agency ‘Respect task forces’ will operate.
Cllr Neil Eustace, Chair of Public Protection, said: “Criminal damage causes a huge financial burden to both city council and private property owners. Becoming a Respect Action Area provides a great opportunity for us to build upon our partnerships with the police and courts to protect residents and target offenders who clearly have no respect for members of the community or the environment.”
As well as the undercover operations the council will also continue to take a pro-active approach to education and prevention, including supporting anti-graffiti treatments to buildings at known black spots and running a ‘name that tag’ initiative, with common graffiti symbols and signatures displayed on posters and a request for members of the public to come forward with any information on them.
Cllr Jim Whorwood, Cabinet Member for Local Services and Community Safety, said: 'The Respect agenda provides Birmingham with a useful framework with which to tackle ASB across the City. As a Respect Action area, we will be launching some new services to reduce anti-social behaviour over the next few months, to further assist in making our neighbourhoods safer.'
Chief Superintendent Jan Turner added, “We want people who commit these types of offences to understand that their actions will not be tolerated and we will be using even more pro-active and sophisticated techniques to track them down.”
Combating anti-social behaviour such as graffiti is just one of nine key issues being targeted by the Government through the Respect campaign. The others are: