More than 20,000 reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB) in Hertfordshire were made over a 13-month period, according to the county's policing chief – an average of 54 a day.

Chief Constable Andy Prophet spoke with Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Jonathan Ash-Edwards for the force's monthly accountability and performance meeting.

The PCC asked the head of the force about the number of ASB incidents reported last year. The chief constable responded that there were 21,470 reports from March 1, 2025, until the end of March this year.

"These are incidents that don't make the threshold of being a crime but are unacceptable behaviour in our communities," said Mr Prophet.

"The long-term trend in the constabulary, and indeed across the country, is down. Some of that is to do with the fact we are better and more accurate at recording things that are genuine crimes.

"So, 21,500 ASB incidents were dealt with in a number of ways – sometimes arrests, sometimes advice, sometimes presence, sometimes dispersal.

"There's a number of specific powers that police have used over the last year in Hertfordshire. For example, on 16 occasions, a premises – that might be a pub, it might be a house – has been closed through a legal mechanism to stop anti-social behaviour happening."

The chief constable added that 82 community protection notices (CPNs) were handed to individuals ordering them to stop their ASB or face arrest, while 312 warnings had also been given and 14 criminal behaviour orders handed down through the courts.

advertisement

He said: "So, you can see there's a whole range of tactics that the constabulary is using.

"Crime is by nature anti-social, and there are some crimes the public often talk to me about overlapping with anti-social behaviour. Things like damage in our communities, arson, hate crime, drug dealing, public disorder and weapons. The public understandably describe those things as anti-social because they are.

"When we look at those categories of crime, what I'm pleased to say over the past 12 months is the constabulary is solving more of them. We're catching more people for doing these things.

"Against that basket of crime that I've just said, last year the constabulary solved 4,616 crimes of an anti-social nature, which was up from about 3,500 the year before. We're tackling ASB, we're tackling anti-social elements of crime and we're catching more people doing it."

The PCC referred back to the ASB action plan and asked what the public should expect from the constabulary going forward.

Mr Prophet responded: "The context here is that every force in the country has published this month a plan on their websites for the public to see, 'This is how we're going to tackle anti-social behaviour with you and with our partners in your county'.

"The Hertfordshire plan commits to being visible in our communities where anti-social behaviour is happening, targeting hotspot locations whatever they might be – town centres, parks, dark streets.

"[We're] working incredibly closely with victims and people who are reporting anti-social behaviour to make sure that we're helping them, whatever that might look like – advice, safeguarding, intervention and, perhaps most importantly, targeting the people doing it and holding them to account."

advertisement

The PCC said: "I think there's some good work being done across the county there, and we look forward to seeing that plan take fruition."