Lecturer and early-career researcher | Views own | he/him 🏳️🌈
Sheffield, England
Joined October 2018
- Tweets333
- Following173
- Followers204
- Likes1.2K
Dr Ben Archer retweeted
Scrapping the Vagrancy Act won’t end the criminalisation of rough sleeping bigissue.com/opinion/vagranc…
Dr Ben Archer retweeted
Last week, Sheffield's first Public Space Protection Order came into force.
But did @SheffCouncil properly consider whether it will disproportionately impact the city's most vulnerable people?
@SamMGreg investigates, with insight from @BenjaminArcher_ ⬇️
nowthenmagazine.com/articles…
Sheffield's Public Spaces Protection Order – with prohibitions on alcohol consumption, begging, loitering, drug use, and urination/defecation – is confirmed to become active on Monday, April 7th:
sheffield.gov.uk/pollution-n…
Unfortunately, this isn't an April Fool's joke 😕
Speaking at Public Policy Exchange’s ‘Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour’ event on April 29th – discussing PSPOs and the impact of the Crime and Policing Bill.
Looking forward to the conversation!
publicpolicyexchange.co.uk/e…
Dr Ben Archer retweeted
Will likely stick around here for a bit, but you can also catch work-related posts over there too:
bsky.app/profile/benjaminarc…
I'm keen to share my research with academic, practitioner, and public audiences—so if you know of opportunities for talks, panels, or presentations, I'd love to hear😄
A few weeks into my Early Career Research and Innovation Fellowship, and it's been great to start drafting outputs from my PhD!
Dr Ben Archer retweeted
This is the form that @MyDoncaster 'city centre engagement officers' use to bar people from Doncaster city centre.
The pettiest council officers are being given absolute powers to order people around.
The officer can ban someone if the officer thinks that the person 'is likely to cause annoyance' to any other person in the city centre.
The form allows the officer to specify when the person must leave the area (immediately/in 15 mins/30 mins/1 hour)
The officer must state the 'anti-social behaviour giving rise to the dispersal' (this is the only slight requirement of evidence, but given the broad nature of the power they could write anything).
The officer also gets to choose the area from which the person is excluded from; the length of time for which they are excluded; and any specified route by which they must leave the area.
The form states that failure to comply with whatever the officer puts on the form is a criminal offence - with a 'max £1000 fine' and £100 on-the-spot fine.
The Manifesto Club is campaigning against dispersal powers - we don't agree with them for the police, and especially not for council officials.
If someone is committing a crime, they should be prosecuted; if not, they have every right to remain in a public space.
Join us and sign up below...
manifestoclub.info
It’s a shame to see Sheffield City Council take such a punitive stance by criminalising vulnerability.
PSPOs are blunt tools to be used (if at all) in a targeted manner – the broad remit of this order and inclusion of dispersal powers is concerning.
bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3e3…
Respect Orders are a ‘new’ power, but their scope seems broadly similar to several powers that already exist, and will seemingly continue to do so.
I’ll be keeping an eye on the findings of the pilot, and hope that their introduction is more than political posturing.
Waking up today to the anticipated announcement of Respect Orders to address anti-social behaviour.
In doing so, I’m disappointed to see the return of a stigmatic rhetoric to describe young people.
gov.uk/government/news/new-p…
Will likely stick around here for a bit, but you can also catch work-related posts over there too:
bsky.app/profile/benjaminarc…
