Police Crack Down On Antisocial Behaviour Across Kirklees

Posted By: Christopher Morganon: May 14, 2024In: Current Affairs, Emergency Services, News, Regional News

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By Emmanuel Menon –

West Yorkshire Police reviewed their targets across Kirklees last month, revealing a persisting and concerning theme of drug and gang-related antisocial behaviour in the district.

Targets set in late 2023 and early 2024 by the West Yorkshire Police were set to respond to individual reports and community concerns across Kirklees of widespread antisocial behaviour.

Across Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley, and surrounding areas, reports of drug-related violence and antisocial behaviour, including nuisance use of motor vehicles, were a major source of complaints from local communities.

An April 2024 police review of these targets reveals that these issues persist and that little new action has been taken to reduce their occurrence.

West Yorkshire Police have failed to provide updates on several of their targets across the area which pertain to “drug use” and the “illegal growing of Cannabis”, specifically across the Batley and Dewsbury areas.

This comes alongside police reports that, from 2023 to date, there have been nearly 1500 calls for service regarding “off-road motorcycles/nuisance vehicles” in the Kirklees area.

Police efforts to combat this antisocial behaviour have reportedly resulted in over 200 nuisance vehicles being seized or returned to their original owners, with nine formal warnings being issued since 2023.

South Yorkshire Police have defined nuisance motorbike and vehicle activity as “motorbikes/e-scooters being ridden on the pavement”, “groups of vehicles gathered in a car park” and “vehicles racing up and down the road”.

In Huddersfield town centre, police have also increased high-visibility patrols and have made a number of arrests in an effort to keep safe those “enjoying a night out in Huddersfield”, a point raised in their earlier targets.

West Yorkshire Police continue to patrol the local centres for higher education and have put in place a “night safety bus” to ensure people have a safe place to go in the town centre but have given no update on potential gang members at Kirklees College.

If you have been affected by antisocial behaviour in Kirklees recently, go to https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/report-it or contact your Neighbourhood Policing Team to file a report.