Surrey Street Standards originated in Guildford in 2002, and is now a highly effective, low tolerance approach to tackling antisocial behaviour across the county. It follows the yellow and red card scheme, familiar in football games worldwide. Surrey Police will show a yellow card to warn offenders who are behaving anti-socially. Their details are kept on a database, and if they re-offend within 6 months, they get a red card and are prosecuted. The cards are used for many forms of anti-social behaviour, ranging from swearing, urinating or dropping litter to acting in a threatening manner.

The initiative has been such a success in Guildford Town Centre that it is now being rolled out into other neighbourhoods, and other Crime Reduction Partnerships across the country are now starting to use the system in their own areas.

Seen as a form of antisocial behaviour, street urinating is now taken very seriously. Anyone caught urinating in the street will now be responsible for cleaning up their own mess. This is because Surrey Police now have a specially designed ‘Water Bus’ equipped with water jet and brushes. As well as receiving a ‘yellow card,’ if offenders don’t clean up they face arrest. It’s a unique scheme, providing immediate restorative justice to the person committing the offence whilst deterring others from urinating in public.