(Assignment 2: Article 1) Lancashire homeowners left waiting as police tend to binge drinkers

It has been revealed that Lancashire residents are missing out on police services as a result of binge drinking behaviour. Fresh ideas are being put forward in an attempt to reduce the high levels of binge drinking and combat the problem.

Criminal or victim?

Currently, UK citizens are the 3rd worst binge drinkers in the EU and there are statistics to show that this problem is getting worse. Binge drinking is an issue that features heavily in the media; it is affecting our health, crime rates and quality of education.

Binge drinking results in vast amounts of work for the police on a daily basis. There are high levels of alcohol related violence in the county and many people are falling victim to crime because they are drunk.

Students and young adults are putting themselves in vulnerable positions when they have too much alcohol because criminals recognise their drunken state and steal their belongings. The victims don’t realise their stuff is gone because they are so unaware.

Limited resources

The police are spending thousands of pounds every week, caring for out of control binge drinkers outside pubs and clubs on Friday and Saturday nights. Meanwhile, other members of the community cannot get hold of the police assistance they need.

Andy Bradbury of the Lancashire Constabulary thinks it’s unacceptable that police are spending time and resources looking after drunken people at weekends. He said: “People that should take priority are people that have just had their house burgled, but they have to wait.

“We have to apologise because we have been sorting out the drunken people whom we are scared will become violent and a threat to others.”


Picture from;http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikjaeger/60483430/
Mixing drinks and high quantities of alcohol effects human behaviour.

The solution

One proposal is to charge pubs and clubs for the services police officers provide during nights out. Football clubs are currently expected to pay for police and security around the stadiums during matches and now pubs and clubs may be made to do the same in the future.

When asked how we should put a stop to excessive binge drinking Mr Bradbury said: “It shouldn’t be left up to police to tackle the issue of binge drinking. It is not just a police issue, the impact it has on resources is also an issue for ambulances. Our resources shouldn’t be wasted on those issues.”

Current plans suggest that in the near future we will see more money being used to combat crime in relation to binge drinking. However, these funds will come via a crime prevention scheme rather than the government.