Police crackdown on anti-social behaviour in Halstead

Officers put a dispersal order in place on the early hours of Sunday, January 8, from 1am to 6am.

The order covered the whole of the town and came following a number of incidents of antisocial behaviour.

Police also said the behaviour of a number of young people included “shouting and swearing in public and congregating outside businesses and intimidation of some members of the public”.

The order gave officers the power to direct people suspected of acting anti-socially to leave the area.

It is the second dispersal order in recent weeks, with one also put in place in December.

Speaking ahead of the order, Insp Joanne Molyneux said: “The behaviour of a number of people has meant this order has been put in place purely to ensure the safety of people and property in the town.

“We do not take these decisions lightly, but we will be directing anyone who we suspect of acting antisocially to leave the area immediately.”

The dispersal order was in place on Sunday morning (Image: Essex Police)

Essex Police has also provided an update on the work it has been doing to tackle ongoing issues in the town, which has been happening for several weeks.

A spokesman said: “Just before Christmas we were made aware of growing anti-social behaviour in Halstead following a spate of criminal damages to vehicles.

“Thanks to your information we were able to identify the people causing the most problems in the town and increased our patrols

“So far, we have made four arrests of the group, for various offences.

“We have seized seven mobile phones and are downloading the messages from these.

“One man has been reported for cannabis possession and an offensive weapon.

“One person has been relocated out of the town due to our disruption.

“Two are subject to ongoing intervention work.

“We have also worked with local housing, and households involved have been given tenancy cautions.

“The investigation is still ongoing in relation to the criminal damage to the vehicles.”

“The more information we receive about crime or anti-social behaviour the more effective we can be - you can give information anonymously at crimestoppers-uk.org.”