Life in Heanor town centre that banned balaclavas

BBC News reports on Heanor's ban on face coverings worn to intimidate, with police, council and resident views. It says plainly how few fines have been issued and what its figures cover. Its one weakness is small: it answers whether the ban made a difference with a fall in anti-social behaviour reports taken from February alone in each of three years.

1. Uses figures that mislead

   Minor

   “and in February this year 15 reports were logged”

   Why this matters

   The BBC answers its own question about whether the ban made a difference with one month's figure from each of three years.

   The impression it gives

   A reader may take the drop from 46 to 15 as a trend that shows the ban working.

   The context

   Single months are a narrow base for a trend, and the article itself says the figures include crimes outside the order and that police have no exact figures for incidents dealt with under it.

   How we know

   • Elsewhere in the article“including crimes which do not fall under the PSPO regulations”
   • Elsewhere in the article“there were no exact figures for incidents dealt within the PSPO area”