If anti-social behaviour is falling, why does it feel like such a problem?

Youths on electric bikes, fighting in the street and fly-tipping can be regular complaints for communities plagued by anti-social behaviour. But official statistics from across north-east England and Cumbria show reports of it are falling - so why does the problem feel so bad?

"We're not going to ring 999 for kids playing on their bikes in the middle of the road," says Sam Smith.

She lives in Seaton Delaval in Northumberland, and has grown increasingly frustrated with the amount of anti-social behaviour in her area and the difficulty in stopping it.

Most of the complaints relate to large groups of youths gathering in Astley Park, riding bikes dangerously and throwing missiles at homes.

"They're in the park, they're frightening the residents by knocking on the windows and just by being there in volume," she said.

Anti-social behaviour can be frustrating for its victims and is often highlighted on community pages on social media sites.

Despite the attention it receives online, official figures show reports to police forces in the North East and Cumbria - Northumbria, Durham, Cleveland and Cumbria - fell from 6,590 in January 2022 to 3,924 in January 2026.

But Smith is not convinced by the numbers.

"I don't think the stats are reflective [of the situation]," she says.

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) is defined in law as "conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person", as well as actions which cause "nuisance or annoyance" to someone at their home.

According to the Metropolitan Police, ASB can be aimed at a specific person, a community or the environment and falls into 13 types. They are:

• Vehicles abandoned by their owners
• Vehicle nuisance or inappropriate use - such as street cruising or the dangerous use of motorised bicycles
• Rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour
• Rowdy or nuisance neighbours
• Littering or drugs paraphernalia in public
• Animal problems
• Trespassing
• Nuisance calls
• Street drinking
• Activity relating to sex workers or sex working
• Nuisance noise
• Begging
• Misuse of fireworks

But classifying whether something is ASB can be confusing as other activities, such as illegal drug offences or criminal damage, are their own separate crimes, despite often being associated with ASB.

For example, leaving drug paraphernalia in the street is anti-social behaviour, but drug use itself is not.

The charity Neighbourhood Watch works to prevent crime and support local communities.

Its deputy chief executive, Sandra Bauer, agrees the police figures might not tell the whole story about ASB.

"It is the thing that motivates most people to get involved [with Neighbourhood Watch]," she says.

"The experience of ASB in their locality seems to be the thing that organises local people to do something - whether that ASB is noise nuisance or fly tipping or graffiti.

"So, no. I don't think it's particularly going down."

Bauer says the reason ASB may not be truly falling is because a lot of cases are handled by councils, rather than the police, with some instances even becoming the responsibility of landlords.

She says this can make it confusing for victims to know where to report ASB and Neighbourhood Watch provides a lot of information to people about which is the correct channel for specific issues.

Smith says she has experienced this confusion and has been told by the police to report ASB to Northumberland County Council, only for the local authority to tell her to contact the police.

Northumbria Police says ASB had always been reportable to multiple agencies, meaning any issues in reporting would not account for the drop in figures over the last four years.

Smith says another issue is slow response times. When she has contacted the police, it can take several days for them to respond - something she says can put people off reporting ASB at all.

"It takes so long for them to get out there," she said. "It's like a vicious circle."

A Freedom of Information request in 2023 found Northumbria Police did not attend 103,516 reports of ASB over afour-year period, Cleveland Police did not attend 56,119, while Durham Police did not attend 20,759.

At the time, Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness - who is now North East mayor - said the issues were due to "plummeting police budgets".

Another reason police figures may show a decrease in ASB is due to the way crimes are reported.

According to the Home Office, in 2021 His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services found many police forces around the country were incorrectly logging crimes, such as public order offences, stalking or harassment, as ASB.

Since then, it says forces have introduced further training and audits to ensure accurate crime recording where a notifiable offence is identified.

Northumbria Police says ASB in its patch has fallen along with public order offences, which mean the changes made to its reporting had not caused statistics to show increases in other crimes.

The region's police forces say much of the reason for the drop is because they are actively working to tackle ASB in communities.

"We completely understand the negative and significant impact that ASB can have on the lives of the community and always aim to tackle such issues head-on using a range of tactics," a Northumbria Police spokesperson said.

They said the force carries out a "mixture of activity" year-round, as well as working with other organisations such as Project Guardian, the Safer Streets Initiative and Trojan Bus projects.

It also runs the Safer Transport Northumbria initiative, allowing commuters to raise issues while using public transport, and operates a dedicated unit across the Tyne and Wear Metro network.

"This has helped us to achieve this drop in reports of ASB, and our focus remains on improving this even further," they said.

Durham Police say crime is down across its force area and it recently introduced 26 extra officers into its neighbourhood teams to tackle crime and ASB, and officers carried out an additional 14,000 hours of "high-visibility patrols" last year.

Cleveland Police's lead for tackling ASB, Ch Insp Nigel Burnell, says he recognises it has been "historically underreported and public perception does not always reflect official data".

He says the force has seen a 30% decrease in ASB in hotspot areas, where officers had worked to "address repeat problems and individuals".

Cumbria Police also boasted similar results, saying ASB had fallen 42% in 15 hotspot areas and "high-visibility policing" had been proven to work.

But Ch Supt Andy Wilkinson says: "We are not complacent, and there is always more to do.

"I would always encourage the public to tell us about incidents that are happening in your local area."

Bauer agrees reporting is vital, saying: "If you don't there's no trail back and and it can't show up in a pattern.

"It's really important for police to see those stats, to see local people are complaining about something and there's a good reason to put a priority against it."

But for Smith, reporting takes time and when police do arrive to take a statement, she feels like she is wasting the officer's time.

"It's just frustrating."

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