The Law and You: Dispersal Orders
All this October in The LINC Online's Articles section, we'll be looking at The Law and You, with our guides to how the law can affect you as a young person.
In this article, we look at dispersal orders.
What is a dispersal order?
Dispersal orders are put on certain areas from time to time. If an area has a dispersal order the police are allowed to disperse (move on and separate) groups of two or more people in that area. They can do this if they have reason to believe that the group have or might harass, intimidate, alarm or distress a member of the public.
If you are in a group that is asked to disperse by police it will be an offence for you to go back to that area in the next 24 hours.
Under 16’s
If someone under 16 is stopped in the area after 9pm and is not accompanied by an adult, the police can escort them to their home address if they are either:
• at risk or vulnerable because of antisocial behaviour or crime
• causing, or at risk of causing, antisocial behaviour
What happens if someone doesn’t move on when a police officer asks them to?
If someone doesn’t disperse and they are in an area which has a dispersal order, this is a criminal offence and could result in a fine of up to £5,000 and / or imprisonment for up to three months.
Who decides which area needs a dispersal order?
A senior police officer makes the decision and in Wigan borough this also has to be agreed by a senior member of staff from Wigan Council.
Orders are placed on areas where there are problems with groups causing antisocial behaviour or intimidating others. The areas could be as small or as large as necessary, as long as there is evidence of anti-social behaviour there. How long does the order last?
A dispersal order can be placed on an area for up to six months. After that a new order could be put in place if there was still evidence of groups causing anti-social behaviour.
Image: This is a dispersal order by Libby / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0