A council survey found 77 per cent of Portsmouth residents witnessed or experienced anti social behaviour in the past year

Many Portsmouth residents feel reporting anti social behaviour (ASB) is “pointless”, according to a recent survey.

Portsmouth City Council’s health and wellbeing board recently met to discuss the findings of its community safety survey.

It found that roughly a third of residents see ASB as a “significant issue” locally, while 77 per cent witnessed or experienced it in the past year, the highest level since 2014.

Drug use and supply, e-scooters, street noise, drinking and people “hanging around” were among the most common issues.

Caroline Bell, corporate projects manager, described the survey as “one of our most important sources for local insight”.

Most types of reported ASB have increased since 2024, particularly drug related ASB and traffic issues.

Only a quarter of incidents were reported, with apathy, normalisation and a lack of confidence in effective action among the main reasons.

A third of residents said they had been victims of crime in the previous year. This was broadly stable since 2014, but higher than in 2022 and 2024, with threats, intimidation, verbal abuse and hate crime driving the increase.

More than half of residents now see knife crime as a problem, despite police and hospital data showing no increase in knife crime or related admissions.

More than half of residents avoid places where they feel unsafe, with Commercial Road the most frequently mentioned, followed by Somerstown and Buckland.

Drug use, alcohol, ASB, groups hanging around and the “visible presence of rough sleeping” were among the reasons given.

Ms Bell said that “many” residents “feel that reporting ASB is pointless”, which is “why it’s really important that we listen to our community and building confidence”.

She added there is a “stark” difference between people fearing crime and those who have directly experienced it, and argued there needs to be more “community messaging on the actual levels”.

Alex Rennie, deputy police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said Portsmouth and Southampton are the “hotspot areas” for knife crime in the region.

He said there aren’t any “particular areas” of Portsmouth “that we can pinpoint”, rather general areas across the city.

He said knife crime has decreased by some 23 per cent over the last three years in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

He said knife amnesty bins, which helped collect “thousands of knives”, were successful, as well as metal detectors in night time economy areas.

He added that stop and searches have been helpful, particularly in Somerstown, which led to “arrests and uncovering an organised crime gang”.

You can report anti-social behaviour in Portsmouth online through the Portsmouth City Council Reporting Portal or by calling the City Helpdesk at 023 9283 4092.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 999, or call 101 or use the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary Reporting Service for non-emergency matters.