Good policing is currently a postcode lottery that is a deep dark stain on our forces - Peter Bleksley

Colloquially known as ASBOs, we were told that these were going to be a powerful new tool for the police to use as they tackled errant and unruly youths, low-level drug dealing, and other misdemeanours that blighted communities.

My concern back then was that they would be lazily used as a get-out option, that would allow police to cobble together enough hearsay, gossip, rumour and half-baked statements in order to justify one of these being slapped on a kid or an irritant adult, rather than making police officers work hard to gather compelling evidence of actual crimes, so that offenders could be put in front of a court, and suitably punished

I was sadly proved right, as they became a badge of honour for younger thugs, worn with pride and frequently ignored. This short-lived folly only survived until 2014, when the Tory Government abolished them. For some bizarre reason the Scots held onto ASBOs.

Unfortunately, by then, the cracks in the criminal justice system were beginning to show; the CPS was overworked, under staffed and risk-averse, the courts couldn’t efficiently handle the cases that did make it to trial, prison overcrowding was already a thing, and one of the greatest acts of idiocy ever bestowed on the justice system - Chris Grayling’s privatisation of the probation service, was about to happen.

In a foolish, revamped effort to prevent criminals entering this failing, shambles of a system, Civil injunctions and criminal behaviour orders became a thing.

These became routinely breached, and only recently Kent Police revealed that nearly half of the arrests made by their officers were for flagrant non-compliance with these and other equally ineffective orders. Sometimes there is no suitable alternative to locking people up.

Fast forward to this week, and yet again we have another hugely critical report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, this time telling us how poorly our coppers deal with Anti-social behaviour. Quell surprise.

We’re told that there is some good practice, but also that the police response to the sort of localised, irritating behaviour that causes untold misery to millions, is patchy, and that the thin blue line is hugely inconsistent, is not well trained enough in this area, and that data is not shared effectively.

The average annual salary of a Chief Constable ranges from £155,000 to £193,000. If your estate, street or neighbourhood is continually blighted by dangerous idiots on motorbikes, hooded and masked youngsters dealing crack and heroin, or even if your local park is continually plagued by feral youths who bully, swear, litter, graffiti, fight and let their dogs mess everywhere, so much so that you refuse to let your kids use the swings, do you feel like you’re getting value for money from your university educated, distant and anonymous Chief of Police? I suspect not.

If you’re one of the few lucky ones who receive a service that represents value for money for your council tax police precept, then I’m pleased, and I doff my cap to the officers that provide that, but if, as this report shows, you are one of the many who does not get the neighbourhood policing you deserve, then to have the most basic duty bestowed upon law enforcement reduced to a postcode lottery is a very deep and dark stain on those who run British policing.

Senior officers and the sycophants of the policing industry, (which is now huge and consists of numerous departments at various universities, magazines, think tanks, podcasts, a dedicated tv channel, The College of Police, The Police Chiefs Council and much more), will tell you that policing is now more complex than when I walked the beat, and in some regards they have a point, but until all of these interested parties grasp the simple concept that policing is not a popularity contest, that widespread public support could quickly be regained if they focused on locking up bad people, and that prevention and detection can be effectively achieved through wearing out boot leather and being whispered secrets by nosey and well-intentioned neighbours, then things won’t get better anytime soon