Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

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