- The American 'super-cop' brought in by the Home Office
to cut Britain's crime rate warned last night that the nation's binge
drinking
culture was spiralling out of control and fuelling an epidemic of violence
outside pubs and clubs that threatened to overwhelm the police.
-
- In his first major interview the former Boston police
chief, Paul Evans, described scenes he had witnessed in the early hours
of the morning in city centres across Britain as chaos. 'I'm not sure it
can get much worse,' he said, in response to police fears that new
licensing
laws allowing 24-hour drinking would lead to increased violence.
-
- As the government prepares to put tackling crime and
antisocial behaviour at the heart of this week's Queen's Speech, Evans
is now considering new proposals from senior police officers for tough
new sanctions against violent drinkers.
-
- One measure would see binge drinkers caught fighting
in city centres given points on their driving licences. Another would give
antisocial behaviour orders to offenders banning them from high-crime
nightspots.
-
- Evans, appointed last September as the head of the Home
Office's police standards unit, will launch a 'Christmas blitz' next month
to crack down on alcohol-related offences using on-the-spot penalty fines,
sting operations on businesses serving under-age drinkers and closure
notices
on pubs and clubs associated with violence.
-
- 'If you're in the business of fighting crime, then you
have to be in the business of dealing with the alcohol issue,' Evans said.
'I have spent an awful lot of Fridays and Saturday nights out there. At
one or two o'clock in the morning these places are chaos.
-
- Staggering opening hours of pubs might make a difference.
'I'm not sure it can get much worse,' he said.
-
- Government research shows that 44 per cent of violent
crime is alcohol-related and that 70 per cent of hospital admissions at
weekend are associated with drinking.
-
- In preparation for the campaign, the Home Office has
raised spot fines from £40 to £80 for selling alcohol to
under-18s,
underage drinking itself, disorderly behaviour while drunk in a public
place and public drunkenness.
-
- The courts were given the power to issue driving bans
for non-traffic offences earlier this year. But Evans has been informed
that senior police want beat officers to issue fines much like
speeding-tickets,
which would attract points on their driving licence.
-
- Police officers have complained that on-the-spot fines
in themselves do not deter affluent drinkers determined to get into a
fight.
Other measures under consideration by Evans include a 'three strikes and
you're out' system in which persistent offenders would receive an automatic
anti-social behaviour order after a third fixed penalty for an
alcohol-related
offence.
-
- Evans also revealed that his unit is now targeting 24
towns and inner city areas that account for a quarter of violent crime.
The areas range from northern former industrial towns to south coast
tourist
resorts.
-
- The news comes in advance of Tuesday's Queen's Speech
in which the Prime Minister will unveil new measures to crack down on
crime.
These include curbs on anti-social behaviour, organised crime, illegal
immigration and drugs - including plans to force more addicts into detox
treatment. New measures to crack down on alcohol-related crime are expected
to include sanctions against nightspots consistently associated with
violence
and under-age drinking as well as drinkers themselves.
-
- Muslims who have deserted Labour over the Iraq war will
be wooed back with pledges to prosecute people who incite religious hatred
- the same safeguard as is currently extended to race hatred - and outlaw
discrimination on grounds of faith.
-
- David Blunkett will also unveil a Sentencing Bill to
slash the number of prisoners in Britain's jails, by diverting them into
toughened-up community sentences, or halfway schemes such as weekend jails.
This will delight prison reformers - including Cherie Blair, who has
campaigned
vigorously for fewer women to be jailed - but it is one of few liberal
measures in a draconian programme designed to buy it space for more
progressive
arguments during the election campaign.
-
- 'This is about buying the public's permission to move
on to talking about our progressive agenda,' said one Whitehall source.
'It's arrogant to say we shouldn't address what the public say their
concerns
are, the links they see between terrorism, illegal immigration, drugs and
organised crime.'
-
- With only a few months to go until a likely election,
the Government is unlikely to get all the bills on its list onto the
statute
books. However Downing Street has made clear that four will be prioritised
at all costs: the introduction of identity cards; a crackdown on serious
and organised crime; sweeping powers to combat anti-social behaviour; and
measures to break the link between drugs and crime. Opposition MPs who
oppose them will be painted as 'soft on crime' in the election
campaign.
-
- 'Those will be on the statute book and we will tell the
Tories and Liberal Democrats, "Go on, make our day and oppose
them",'
said the source.
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/
- crime/article/0,2763,1356202,00.html
|
