Blackberries or Just a Raspberry?
“If the current laws on confiscation from under-age drinkers prove inadequate, I will consider the case for new legislation to make it clear that we do not want to see children drinking in public.”
Stern words indeed from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on BBC Breakfast today. Her riposte to the issue of underage street drinking left me wondering whether or not she is familiar with Section 155 of the Licensing Act 2003, Section 12 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 or even the Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997 which already confer on a constable the power to confiscate alcohol from juveniles in a public place. In addition, I wondered whether she had taken the trouble to contact individual forces to establish if and how frequently planned operations are carried out by officers designated to deal with underage drinking.
Had the Home Secretary contacted Sussex police she would have been interested to learn about Operation Quartz in Hove on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. On each of these days two officers begin their night tour of duty at 7pm instead of 11pm during which time they trawl the streets proactivley targetting underage drinkers. If in the unlikely event officers are able to deal with boozing young miscreants (as they are often diverted to an unresourced immediate incident due to a lack of available units) they routinely confiscate alcohol, whether or not the container has been opened. If they are able to ascertain from where the alcohol was purchased they may pay the establishment a visit. Officers do not routinely state under which power they have seized the alcohol and (contrary to what the Home Secretary has stated) the seizure requires no anticedent of anti-social behaviour. The alcohol is then booked into the police station property store before being disposed of. A letter is sent home to the juvenile’s parents and any establishment involved reported to the local licensing board.
Two officers dedicated to this task for four hours three times per week is woefully inadequate given the scale of the problem and particularly as these officers are often taken off the task and redeployed to unresourced incidents. Many towns and cities also have designated exclusion zones which provide officers with the power to confiscate alcohol from any person. In terms of the responsibility of the police to address the problem of underage drinking it is not the laws which are inadequate but the numbers on the ground in a position to enforce the powers they already have. The Home Secretary cannot disregard this fact and believe the answer lies in broadening the powers of not entirely disempowered officers.
In respect of Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s eagerly awaited end of review report due out tomorrow, I understand that among the proposals is the blanket issuing to officers of a palm pilot computer known as a Blackberry. The Blackberry is intended to assist officers on the street in carrying out Police National Computer (PNC) checks and voters register checks on detained persons. It is far from certain that officers will welcome the introduction of Blackberrys as a means by which to expedite stop checks/stop & searches. Furthermore, such a proposal also overlooks the radio technology officers currently possess.
Indeed, the beauty of officers’ radios is that they can pass details over the airwaves much quicker than they would tinkering away on a Blackberry which requires inputting the information before it is processed and relayed back to the officer. Passing the information over the radio allows the officer to maintain eye contact with the detained person (who is hostile more often than not) and also allows the officer to carry out a stop & search while the radio controller processes the information relayed by the officer. The use of a Blackberry entails breaking eye contact which can have disasterous consequences particularly if an officer is patrolling alone. For relaying and receiving information expeditiously they have their radios. For recording information they have their pocket note books and pens. Having spoken to four serving officers regarding this proposal they asked the following: From where will the money come? Where will I put the Blackberry as there’s no room left on my utility belt? What happens if after breaking eye contact to input information the detained person makes off, assaults me or kicks the Blackberry (an expensive piece of kit) out of my hands? Will the CPS prosecute for criminal damage? What’s wrong with what I already have?
The wait for the fifth review of policing in eight years is almost over. Time will tell whether or not it was worth it.
