Drugs a Top Priority

Why does Devon and Cornwall have more drugs use than almost anywhere else in the country? The answer: End of the line syndrome. The tendency to keep going until you run out of road that leads many of Britain's drug users down the Peninsula. We are fortunate, those of us that come from the West Country, in that we have a great climate and beautiful countryside. My roots are deep in Cornwall which is such a magnificent county. But Devon and Cornwall is an area, one of just three in the country, about which HMIC (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary) expresses concern. They stated in July 2012 that Devon and Cornwall Police, "may not be able to provide a sufficiently efficient or effective service for the public in the future." Nowhere is this failure more evident than over the drugs issue.

Serious drugs hotspots like Bodmin, Newquay and North Devon seem unaffected by the opium shortage in Afghanistan that has caused heroin prices to rocket following this year's poor poppy harvest. Should we care? Yes we should. Figures about to be released by the Anti Social Behaviour Team show a significant increase in littering with drug paraphernalia, an indication of increasing levels of drug abuse in the South West.

There are pockets in the South West that have the highest numbers of registered heroin users in the country on a per capita basis. Heroin withdrawal produces aggressive behaviour in an addict. And so many addicts are desperate to kick the habit. Yet Rehab provision in Devon and Cornwall is grossly inadequate. Your best bet is to get arrested if you want to dry out. And then you have to cope with the vagaries of our prison system where drugs are often readily available.

Now let's be clear about this before we go further - there is an argument for the decriminalisation of drugs. Note the distinction. Not legalisation. Pushers would still be arrested but users would not be pursued and drugs abuse would be treated more as an illness than a crime. The new Police and Crime Commissioner has the power to set police targets and could de-facto decriminalise drugs use whilst still pursuing drug dealers. This would not be my way even though it has much to commend it. All the same, the drugs issue is one I intend to examine most carefully if elected.

Decriminalisation is the path Portugal has trod in recent years with good effect. Furthermore the reality is that at present the policy of the Devon and Cornwall Police Force, like most in the country, is to ignore the users and pursue the pushers. The Portuguese model is the model that is being followed in all but name.

The drugs issues affects us all. Unquestionably society would be better off without drugs and their decimating effect. We need strategies, effective strategies, that work to that end.

One thing is clear: Detox provision is grossly inadequate in the West Country. Rehabilitation provision which follows Detox is equally inadequate.

As a former prison visitor, I have visited many criminals in for violent crime. Countless times I have talked with men whose crimes were committed whilst tanked up on alcohol or in need of drugs. And not once have I met a prisoner in for a violent crime that was not drugs or alcohol related. Is my experience that of others? Yes. I asked representatives of the Cornwall and Devon Probation Service their opinion last week and one of their officers claimed that 70% of all crime in Devon and Cornwall is drugs or (more commonly) alcohol related. That claim seems a little high but the link is clearly very real.

The drugs issue is not the same as the alcohol issue - and much needs doing about the disorderly behaviour that results from alcohol abuse (an issue I will address in a subsequent blog). But the drugs issue is paramount. And drugs in every shape and form are damaging, even cannabis, which dulls the mind and makes its regular users slow witted. Cannabis-induced psychosis (kids becoming mentally ill through overuse of "skunk") is also a problem. More importantly, over time, cannabis users become users of Class A and Class B drugs and their lives are destroyed.

Drugs abuse is not worse than alcohol abuse. But it has its unique dangers and our society must be far more vigilant.

Drug addicts, like all addicts, evangelise for their predilection. The consequent pressure on our children is not to be born. Drugs like cannabis are all too readilly available to secondary school pupils in Devon and Cornwall, and more dangerous drugs are far from difficult to find. Our children deserve a better world. They look to us for their protection. We should not and must not be found wanting. Is zero tolerance of drugs use the answer? There are plenty of places with a zero tolerance policy. East Texas for instance. It works well but it would be a step too far for Devon and Cornwall at this time. I will introduce local police targets for each of Devon and Cornwall's six policing areas. If we fail to bring down levels of drug use in Devon and Cornwall in the first year of my tenure as Police Commissioner (and the presence of littered drug paraphenalia is the indicator I shall use on the crime statistics) then I will introduce a zero tollerance policy in that area in which drug use is worse. By zero tollerance I mean arrest for users carrying drugs outside their homes (a policy not generally applied at present). Zero tollerance policies are difficult for the police because of levels of paperwork involved in each arrest which is why this will be a targeted policy.

What is certain is that people who want to get off drugs should be helped to do so. I pledge to do all in my power to work with the local authorities to increase detox and rehab provision in the West Country (both inside and outside prison) if elected and to make that a top priority. I make an absolute commitment to dramatically increase provision for home detox where appropriate.

Demanding More Police

The numbers of police officers in the Devon and Cornwall force have been on a downward spiral. Senior officers complain about rule A19 under the terms of which they cannot serve for more than 30 years. I see the injustice inherent in such an approach but that is not what I am talking about in this instance. Frontline policing in Devon and Cornwall is under threat. Bobbies on the beat are under threat.  At this rate our police force will end up like the Royal Navy where they have more admirals than ships. Over the past 12 months numbers of serving officers in the Devon and Cornwall force are down by 6%.

Meanwhile crime levels are on the increase. Now this is no national trend. Crime figures nationally are in decline. This is a phenomenon almost unique to Devon and Cornwall. In Devon and Cornwall, not only are crime figures on the increase, they are on the increase by a proportion that exactly mirrors the decline in police numbers. Crime is up by 6% whilst police numbers are down by 6%. To be precise, in the year to March 2012, Home Office figures showed officer numbers down by over 200, a 6.1% drop alongside a 6% increase in recorded crime, the largest in Britain. And further cutbacks mean that by 2015 seven hundred officers will have gone, a fifth of the force.

Why should this be? Well clearly the most important factor is cuts forced upon the police by the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review. And the other is incompetent management of the police. The Devon and Cornwall Police Authority has been virtually dysfunctional for some considerable time, failing to even have a chief constable in place for quite a period. This lack of leadership evidently takes its toll.

Safe streets mean freedom from fear, the entitlement of each and every man, woman and child on the planet. But though it does not always directly impact the crime figures, the increase in disorderly behaviour is evident everywhere. What makes a difference to the crime figures is increased levels of theft in the South West. In part this is a consequence of economic decline because of under investment in the region. Poverty clearly matters. But so does fewer Bobbies on the beat. We do not even have the manpower to spare for proper liaison with community groups. One Neighbourhood Watch group in Exeter told me this week that they had yet to see any police liaison and had been told nobody was available for the foreseeable future.

Our priorities have to include delivering more frontline policing. At the moment there are insufficient police to deliver follow up on many important cases. Resources are stretched and the impact on police morale and public confidence is evident.

We also need less police bureaucracy. This is hard to deliver as it’s a nationwide issue but it is one on which the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner must speak out. Inordinate levels of paperwork mean that each minor arrest results in a day spent in the office behind a desk form filling. It never used to be like this.

One absolute commitment I make to you: Once elected I will fight tooth and nail to restore front line Police numbers in Devon and Cornwall. We cannot and must not allow this decline to continue.

Why I Stand

I stand because I am from the West Country, and I am concerned. I am concerned about those of us who are vulnerable, the very young and the very old, the disabled, the mentally ill, even the unemployed. The vulnerable in our society, indeed in any society, are less able to secure, for themselves and of themselves, those rights and freedoms we all hold dear. 

What applies to the young, to the old, and applies to the vulnerable, is true for us all of course. Just because we are more able to stand up for ourselves does not mean that we do not care for the same principles, the same rights. Chief amongst which is the right to freedom from fear.

Freedom from fear

Freedom from fear was one of Roosevelt’s four great freedoms, the other three being freedom of expression, freedom from want, and freedom of religion. We all have a right to freedom from fear. Freedom from the fear that something might happen to our children on their way home from school or if we allow them out to play. This is not the way things should be. Children always used to roam free. It is neither healthy nor wholesome that we should have to be as concerned as we are for their safety in a society in which the predatory is fast becoming par for the course.

And this goes beyond concern about child abuse. Our children are vulnerable to the excesses of their own peers in a world in which drugs, alcohol and sex are marketed at a frenetic pace to the very young, both deliberately and inadvertently. Plus there are more mundane threats, such as the sheer volume of fast moving traffic for children to dodge in this vibrant world, bursting so at the seams, in which we all live and breathe in this 21^st century.

The old of course have their own unique concerns, some of which, like neglect, also impact the very young. Both social groups are vulnerable. Both are our responsibility. A society that fails to protect the very old and the very young is not civilised. Indeed the most primitive tribe in the wilderness is more civilised than we are if we leave our vulnerable prey to predatory violence, abuse and fear and they do not.  

Drug and alcohol abuse

The South West has the highest number of registered heroin users per capita in the United Kingdom. In part this is what some call “end of the line syndrome” because our environment is attractive and our climate comfortable. And who can blame people from up country for finding the West Country a good place to be? But the prevalence of drug abuse is none the less cause for concern. What is more concerning perhaps, is the fact that the South West has little or no provision for rehab from drug and alcohol abuse and almost zero provision for detox. What sort of people are we? Do we not care?

Then there is the ease with which the young gain access to alcohol, with cheap drink being sold to the under sixteens by some less scrupulous wine merchants; and we all know those few rogue city centre pubs that willingly sell alcohol to the underage. Why is this permitted?

Anyone who has ever visited a prison will know full well that most, indeed almost all, violent crime is committed by those under the influence of alcohol, or seeking to obtain drugs. Nobody is going to worry too much about an old man with a spliff or a holiday maker who’s too fond of a glass of cider. But there are limits. Heroin withdrawal produces very aggressive symptoms. And young men in a crowd tanked up on alcohol become doubly dangerous to the vulnerable, indeed to all of us.

Violent crime

And violent crime is deeply disturbing; arguably more disturbing than almost any other form of crime. Which is why I believe the Police Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall should make addressing street crime top priority. I have been much impressed, as so many have, by the policy of zero tolerance that has transformed New York. However was zero tolerance the cause of the fall in their crime rate or was there an underlying trend that accounts for New York’s transformation? This is a question that needs further examination and one which I intend to address. Could the same be done for Britain’s major cities and resort towns? Would that mean accepting a police state? Our rights and freedoms are, or should be, sacred. But perhaps we should become tougher on some petty crimes like disorderly behaviour and vandalism if it can be shown that such a policy would ensure that the more brutal crimes of violence are less prevalent. 

Social justice

Blair once famously talked of being ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’. Words are cheap of course. What counts is action. And undoubtedly the causes of crime in the South West deserve close examination. The West Country has the dubious privilege of having pockets of child poverty that rank among the worst in the country. Does poverty equate with crime? The parallel is a little trite and in any case gives rise to ethically questionable inferences. But clearly any society in which unemployment is rife and investment in infrastructure inadequate will be its own sort of pressure cooker. And there has been precious little investment in industry that might bring solid well paid year round employment here in the South West. We cherish our tourism but it is asking too much too expect our hard pressed tourist industry to sustain, of itself, a vibrant economy. Our farming is under pressure; our fisheries more so; our mining industry a thing of the past, and economic development simply inadequate. Is this a matter that should concern the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner?  Absolutely yes; the Police Commissioner has a duty to draw attention to any and all factors that directly or indirectly impact crime in the South West, and to do so loudly and persistently.

Human dignity

Essentially it is a matter of human dignity. There is so much more to the phrase ‘human dignity’ than mere human rights. And the need to sustain human dignity is a matter that should concern us all because it affects us all from cradle to grave. In a sense, a very real sense, it is because of the need for human dignity that we maintain a Police Force in the first place. We need to be able to walk free, free from the threat of robbery or violence, but also free from abuse and fear. That is why we cherish the rule of law - as well as, of course and importantly, to maintain our rights and freedoms.

Rights of man

Which brings us back to those basic human rights, what the archetypal British philosopher, Tom Paine, once called the ‘Rights of Man’. These include the right to protest and free assembly, free speech and freedom of expression. These include the right to live and work in dignity. These include the right to walk free in the streets of our towns and villages without concern about the need to watch our backs no matter the time of the day or night. The police are a bulwark to protect these rights and indeed all our rights. The police are not here to fill forms and shuffle paperwork. They are here to keep our society free, to keep our children safe, and to protect life and property from threat of any kind. It is my intention to make sure they are enabled to do just that.

Social Deprivation in the South West

These days it's fashionable to call social deprivation "Social Exclusion". A more old fashioned name is poverty. Does poverty lead to crime? Clearly not. Often the poor have far better ethical standards than the rich in regard to sheer generosity of spirit toward their fellow man. There are good people everywhere. Why do good people turn bad?
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, wrote in The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
No poverty does not lead to crime. But poverty is one of the causes of crime. Poverty puts pressure on people. All sorts of pressures. Social pressures totally unrelated to crime. Parts of the South West have high teenage pregnancy rates. Why? The rates of teenage conception are as high as they were a decade ago. Increased numbers of abortions are what's brought the figures down. And those teenage conceptions in sixteen and seventeen year old are eight times as likely to occur in low income families.
Crime, similarly, is more prevalent in areas of social deprivation. High unemployment levels lead directly to poverty. This to is an issue which any Police and Crime Commissioner worth his or her salt will address. The Police Commissioner should and indeed must care about the causes of crime. And speak loudly in that regard.