A focus on anti-social behaviour around retail parks in the Hunslet area has reaped rewards with retailers saying they have seen real improvements in the area.
Team Leodis has been deployed into the Hunslet area since September 2025. They are a specialist team of police officers with expert knowledge on how court orders and injunctions can be used to stop crime and anti-social behaviour.
The team initially surveyed retail and fast-food outlets at The Penny Hill Centre, Tulip Retail Park and on Low Road and met with partners including Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team, the Youth Justice Service, Leeds South Neighbourhood Policing Team and local youth provisions to understand concerns in the area.
It was identified that there were issues with youths riding bikes up and down the shopping parades, assaults on staff members, criminal damage to businesses and stock, low level thefts, verbal abuse to staff and customers and individuals causing a general nuisance such as running around the stores, swearing, shouting and throwing things at windows.
Retailers confirmed that they were not reporting all incidents due to a lack of confidence that police would attend and address the issues.
Over the past five months, Team Leodis’s work has included:
- Issuing nine Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction Warnings.
- Obtaining one interim Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction.
- Varying an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction to include additional terms (further exclusion and additional non-associations).
- Starting two Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction applications which are currently going through the courts.
- Progressing a breach of Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction through the courts.
- Making three referrals to Liaison and Diversion.
- Making six referrals to the Ninety-minute project which is aimed at young people involved in lower-level anti-social behaviour and criminality. The project includes a 45-minute session on a range of topics, such as anti-social behaviour and knife crime, followed by a 45-minute sporting session.
- Obtaining one Criminal Behaviour Order putting restrictions on a prolific shoplifter.
- Providing attack alarms to a business which was getting targeted by groups of youths.
Sergeant Edel Fox, of Team Leodis, said:
“This work is not about short-term fixes but about making long-term positive improvements for retailers and their customers. While we did make arrests, we have found that education and early intervention and support, particularly with younger offenders, can make more of a difference than just arresting them.
“Approaches such as the use of Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction Warnings and the Ninety-minute project are about taking time to understand individuals’ circumstances, speaking to them about the impact of their behaviour, offering them additional support and referrals to other services and ultimately deterring them from the behaviour that is negatively affecting others.
“We have seen some really positive results, but what is especially heartening is that we have also gone back out to survey the same retail and fast-food outlets and they are seeing a real improvement in the area and drop in ASB incidents.”
Team Leodis is part-funded by the Leeds City Council’s housing service and West Yorkshire Police work in partnership with the council to problem solve ASB issues in the community.
Councillor Asghar Khan, Leeds City Council’s executive member for communities, customer service and community safety, said:
“As a council, we are proud to provide funding to support the work of Team Leodis and it’s really pleasing to see the impact of their recent focus on anti-social behaviour in and around these retail locations.
“Their presence has clearly made a positive difference to retailers and customers alike, while those responsible for the problems have, it is hoped, been deterred from causing further trouble.
“The results in Hunslet underline how Team Leodis’s approach is effective across different community settings, with previous deployments successfully addressing anti-social behaviour at blocks of council flats in areas including Little London and Burmantofts.”
Comments from retailers include:
“It’s improved; the youths haven’t been as bad. I’ve not noticed them at all recently and they haven’t been riding around on the bikes like they used to. There has been the odd one, but they have just been riding through the centre, not causing any issues.”
“Things have been a lot better – the youths are not causing issues anymore. They will come in maybe once a week but don’t cause any issues and just leave. There has been a real improvement. The crime prevention alarm has really helped as well – as soon as they see it, they leave.”
“No problems whatsoever, the main people involved have stayed away. We haven’t had any incidents for some time.”
“It has improved somewhat, nothing on the scale as it was. We rarely have issues with ASB now, we can really see the difference.”
“We haven’t had any problems for a while now. The group of lads coming in have disappeared, we don’t have to constantly challenge people anymore it has really improved”.
“The ASB has dropped off, it has really improved for us. We don’t have any issues with the big groups outside anymore”.
This post is based on a press release issued by West Yorkshire Police
Photo: Google
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