Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation
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THE ROLE OF POLICE<br />
<strong>Policing</strong> drug<br />
problems<br />
The best way of dealing with drugs and drugrelated<br />
crime is through low-visibility techniques,<br />
but in a time of financial austerity these are<br />
high-cost activities, says Nicola Singleton<br />
Nicola Singleton is Director of<br />
Policy & Research at the <strong>UK</strong><br />
Drug Policy Commission<br />
A<br />
wide range of drugs are used by<br />
many different groups of people<br />
in a wide variety of settings; there<br />
is no single drug problem and similarly<br />
drug-related crime takes many forms.<br />
The total size of drug markets in the<br />
<strong>UK</strong> has been estimated to be in excess of<br />
£5 billion 1 . The mark-ups as drugs move<br />
through the different stages from producer<br />
to consumer are estimated to be about<br />
16,000 per cent for heroin and cocaine<br />
(compared with, for example, about 400<br />
per cent for coffee) 2 .<br />
Estimating the amount spent on drugrelated<br />
policing is complicated by the fact<br />
that much of this is carried out as part of<br />
everyday policing activities, a considerable<br />
proportion of which is drug-related.<br />
Making an impact on the drug market<br />
through policing is challenging and the<br />
evidence suggests that in established<br />
markets the best that can be aimed for is<br />
keeping a lid on things. Measuring impact<br />
is difficult the traditional measures of<br />
numbers of arrests and seizures provide<br />
evidence of activity rather than outcomes<br />
and, along with other indicators such as<br />
price and purity of drugs on the street, it<br />
is not clear whether increases or decreases<br />
indicate success.<br />
Reviews of the evidence show that<br />
many traditional reactive policing<br />
activities targeting drug supply, such as<br />
seizures and crackdowns on street drug<br />
markets, appear to have little impact,<br />
with the market simply shifting elsewhere.<br />
In some cases, those police activities<br />
can actually make matters worse, for<br />
example as new dealers fight over<br />
vacated territory when a crime group<br />
is removed. 3, 4 Overall, the evidence<br />
base for effectiveness of many policing<br />
interventions comprises largely a mix<br />
of major gaps and inconclusive or<br />
limited evidence.<br />
Smart policing<br />
However, ‘smart’ policing approaches to<br />
tackling drug markets can be effective.<br />
These involve local communities, focus on<br />
the harms that they experience and take a<br />
more holistic approach to addressing these<br />
harms. 5<br />
For example, in the US, the Drug<br />
Market Intervention in communities<br />
affected by open drug markets gathers<br />
evidence on the people dealing drugs,<br />
and separates those that are violent and<br />
dangerous from those who are lower<br />
level offenders. <strong>Police</strong> prosecute the first<br />
group but call the second group into a<br />
community meeting in which they are<br />
offered the choice between prosecution<br />
or reforming with support to tackle<br />
issues like housing and unemployment.<br />
This has proved successful in some<br />
communities 6 and is an approach that<br />
is spreading.<br />
80 | POLICING <strong>UK</strong>