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Drunken crime plagues towns
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| Warning: Chief Supt Shaun Morley |
DRUNKEN crime in the county's town centres is continuing to soar despite major police efforts to tackle night-time disorder.
Oxfordshire's top officer Chief Supt Shaun Morley sent extra officers out on to the streets to combat trouble caused by pub and club-goers last summer.
But during the past 11 months, violent crime increased by more than three per cent and public order crimes went up 10 per cent.
Last night, Mr Morley admitted most of the violent crime is happening in town and city centres when the offenders are drunk.
But the number of violent crimes would have been even higher if the streets had not been flooded with extra police at night time, Mr Morley added.
Police are now taking advice from forces in Blackpool, Bournemouth and Cardiff to tackle the rising tide of drunken crime.
Mr Morley said: "Our analysis shows the marked increase in violent crime is related to night-time drinking.
"We have seen this in all our market towns and it is occurring over a longer period of time because of extended hours.
"Even Thursday has become a new problem, with clubs extending the weekend, and this causes pressure on policing town centres.
"I am disappointed violent crime has increased, but we are determined to reduce it over the next couple of years.
"We have put more officers into town centres and this is putting extra pressure on officers."
Since April there has been 10,771 violent crimes in Oxfordshire - which is 350 more incidents than the same period a year before - while violence against the person has gone up by 429 crimes.
Among a new batch of initiatives police are considering borrowing from other forces is the introduction of taxi marshals to prevent fights in late-night queues.
Police have started patrolling inside pubs and clubs and are collecting data on night-time assaults from accident and emergency wards at Banbury's Horton Hospital and the John Radcliffe in Oxford to draw up a map of violent hot-spots.
Mr Morley added: "If we didn't have the extra officers then the figures could have been much worse. I am pretty sure our actions, and handing out fixed penalty notices for disorder early on, has stopped trouble escalating.
"There needs to be a change in the drinking culture. I don't want to be a killjoy, people should be allowed to go out and enjoy themselves, but it does need a degree of responsibility."
Police estimated the number of drunken assaults could be even higher because many go to hospital but never report the incident to police.
The figures were released to the Thames Valley Police Authority Oxfordshire Police Committee last week.
Since April, overall crime has fallen by 9.5 per cent, or 2,300 crimes.
Burglary and car crime is at the lowest it has been since 1989, with more than 1,000 fewer reports than the same period a year before.
7:18pm Tuesday 25th March 2008
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CommentPosted by: Ed, Oxford on 7:50pm Tue 25 Mar 08
Tell us something we didn't know.
The solution is simple. More Police (not PCSOs) in town on weekend nights. I know an officer based at St Aldates and he says sometimes there can be just 1 officer for the whole city centre on duty, if others are dealing with "customers", if they're not, then 3 or 4 on duty is "normal".
This is laughable. More Police on the beat is what we need!
Tell us something we didn't know.
The solution is simple. More Police (not PCSOs) in town on weekend nights. I know an officer based at St Aldates and he says sometimes there can be just 1 officer for the whole city centre on duty, if others are dealing with "customers", if they're not, then 3 or 4 on duty is "normal".
This is laughable. More Police on the beat is what we need!
Posted by: Dee, witney on 10:41pm Tue 25 Mar 08
AND MORE RESPONSIBLE LANDLORDS WHO STOP SERVING CUSTOMERS WHEN THEY HAVE HAD 1 TOO MANY!!
AND MORE RESPONSIBLE LANDLORDS WHO STOP SERVING CUSTOMERS WHEN THEY HAVE HAD 1 TOO MANY!!
Posted by: carole Fenstermacher, Ballston Spa,NY on 1:01pm Wed 26 Mar 08
As I have commented earlier, perhaps the drinking age should be changed to age 21,for a more responsible type of drinker
As I have commented earlier, perhaps the drinking age should be changed to age 21,for a more responsible type of drinker
Posted by: Bob, Bicester on 2:01pm Wed 26 Mar 08
More Police on the streets would be a quick way of dealing with alot of this.
If they were allowed to actually do their jobs in keeping the streets safe instead of being stuck inside doing paper work and having 'goals' pushed upon them they might have a larger impact on the community rather then being stuck behind all the governmental red tape!
More Police on the streets would be a quick way of dealing with alot of this.
If they were allowed to actually do their jobs in keeping the streets safe instead of being stuck inside doing paper work and having 'goals' pushed upon them they might have a larger impact on the community rather then being stuck behind all the governmental red tape!
Posted by: ap, oxford on 2:23pm Wed 26 Mar 08
The brewers and landlords are making the money from the sale of alchohol so surely they should pay for extra policing just like football clubs do.
The brewers and landlords are making the money from the sale of alchohol so surely they should pay for extra policing just like football clubs do.
Posted by: anon, wallingford on 4:58pm Wed 26 Mar 08
and then in another story we read that a pub in wallingford wants to be open til 2am every night.....ridiculous
....especially when there are no police around at that time to prevent trouble and disruption to the rest of use who have a job to go to the next day.
and then in another story we read that a pub in wallingford wants to be open til 2am every night.....ridiculous
....especially when there are no police around at that time to prevent trouble and disruption to the rest of use who have a job to go to the next day.
Posted by: Subster, Witney on 7:23pm Wed 26 Mar 08
[quote][bold]ap[/bold] wrote:
The brewers and landlords are making the money from the sale of alchohol so surely they should pay for extra policing just like football clubs do.[/quote] Don't forget that the treasury are making money on duty, corporation tax, business rates etc etc so to put some of it back into solving the problems it creates wouldn't go a miss.
ap wrote:
The brewers and landlords are making the money from the sale of alchohol so surely they should pay for extra policing just like football clubs do.
Don't forget that the treasury are making money on duty, corporation tax, business rates etc etc so to put some of it back into solving the problems it creates wouldn't go a miss.
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