Posted on Fri, May. 09, 2008

British official advocates bullying bullies back

By Raphael G. Satter

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON --

How should Britain deal with louts and bullies who make their neighbors' lives miserable? A top law-enforcement official says the answer is to bully them right back.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who is in charge of the country's police, is encouraging authorities to harry and harass repeat offenders by filming them constantly, visiting their homes daily, and trawling through their tax records.

In a speech Thursday to professionals involved in tackling anti-social behavior, Smith said she wants to turn the tables on offenders. She argued that needling suspects on whether their taxes were paid or car registrations up to date would provide "exactly the sort of intensive policing that can bring persistent offenders (to) their senses."

"It creates an environment where those responsible for anti-social behavior have no room for maneuver and nowhere to hide," she said.

State-sponsored harassment is the latest measure intended to fight "anti-social behavior," a loose term that covers anything from underage alcohol abuse to abusive language. Such behavior is seen as a major scourge in Britain.

Smith pointed to a pilot program in Essex, east of London, where officers knocked on doors of known anti-social offenders to tell them that their behavior would not be tolerated -- and then spent the next four days filming them and their friends as they went about their daily business. Essex police said crime in the area fell significantly.

But a criminal-justice expert expressed reservations, saying that kind of continuous surveillance was normally reserved for terrorism or serious organized-crime cases.

"To some extent this is redefining the role of policing young people," said Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Center for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College in London.

Solomon said such an "in-your-face" style of policing risked alienating youths from authorities even further.