MPS Drugs Strategy

Report: 6b
Date: 31 May 2007
By: AC Specialist Crime Directorate on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report informs Members of the proposed Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Drugs Strategy 2007-10. In April 2006 the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) Planning Performance and Review Committee recommended that drugs should be designated a priority for the MPS in the context of understanding the drivers of crime.

At the April meeting of the Full Authority, the Authority received the proposed MPS Drugs Strategy for 2007-10. It was agreed that as the MPA Drugs Scrutiny report was due to come to the May meeting, consideration of the Strategy should be deferred to that meeting so that the two could be considered together. This report also addresses actions from the April meeting around ‘harm’ and the Drugs Intervention Programme.

A. Recommendation

That members consider, comment and endorse the MPS Drugs Strategy 2007-10 and Delivery Plan at Appendix 1.

B. Supporting information

1. In April 2006 the MPA Planning Performance and Review Committee recommended that drugs should be designated a priority for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in the context of understanding the drivers of crime.

2. After extensive internal and external consultation, and careful deliberation, MPS Management Board approved the MPS Drugs Strategy for 2007-10 on 5 December 2006. The comments of the MPA are invited to assist formal adoption and to aid the corporate planning process. This will be particularly important in view of the findings of the MPA Drugs Scrutiny, due to be published in 2007.

3. The vision of the MPS Drugs Strategy is to make London safer by working with partners to disrupt the supply and reduce the use of illegal drugs. There are two main aims:

• We will work to reduce the demand for illegal drugs, and the social, economic and criminal harm caused by illicit use through a coordinated approach with our partners and stakeholders.
• We will seek to disrupt and reduce the supply of illegal drugs, by working with partner agencies and through focusing on intelligence gathering, prevention and enforcement activity in the worst affected neighbourhoods.

4. This strategy pulls together enforcement, prevention and intelligence activities, with the objective of delivering an integrated and broad-based approach to harm reduction. The MPS acknowledges the part key partners have to play in achieving its strategic aims.

5. The strategy makes clear that police will work towards reducing the harm caused by controlled drugs. The nature of these harms is numerous. The MPS definitions of harm, as listed below, are consistent with the Home Office Drug Harm Index (Home Office online report 24/05).

• The harm to the individual. This usually refers to the health harms to the user of the drugs. These can be physical and mental. It can be a direct result of the drug itself or by the method by which it is taken. For instance, the spread of HIV AIDS and hepatitis by the sharing of needles. The term “harm reduction” usually refers to reducing the primary and secondary health risks of the illegal activity. Harm to the individual also includes the affect the drug has on their personal relationships, work prospects and standard of living of a drug user. Children and other dependents can be harmed by the activities of a drug user.
• Harm to the community. These include drug users committing acquisitive crime to be able to purchase drugs, the antisocial behaviour of drug users and dealers and the violence associated with dealers protecting their turf. The more subtle harms of the association of drugs and social deprivation and wasted lives should also be considered. The whole atmosphere of fear, intimidation, violence, vice, and high volume crime is created by powerful organised criminal networks supplying the drugs and problem drugs users buying them.

6. It is recognised that not all drugs cause the same amount of harm. In consequence the drugs strategy prioritises action against class A drugs over and above class B and C. The MPS Strategy is in line with the Government strategy. This concentrates on the drugs that research shows to cause the most harm to individuals and the community. Currently these are heroin, crack cocaine and cocaine. Methamphetamine is being monitored, as this is a drug that has caused a high level of harm in other countries.

7. This three-year strategy is designed to be forward looking, and complementary to central government’s plans and priorities for delivering community safety. The National Community Safety Plan 2006-2009 specifically includes drugs. In 2007-08, the Police Service will be responsible for the following key actions addressing drugs:

• To reduce the harm caused by drug dealing to communities; such as the nuisance caused by street markets associated with level one dealing, as measured by the British Crime Survey;
• To deal with the impact on communities by criminals engaged in drug supply and associated turf wars;
• To develop the capacity to deal with cross-border regional drug dealers; and
• To ensure that drugs and other relevant associated strategies are in place.

8. The Drugs Strategy was devised to complement the joint Metropolitan Police Authority and Metropolitan Police Service Policing London Strategy for 2006-09 and target critical performance areas within the MPS Corporate Strategy.

9. It aims to deliver on present priorities, in particular Safer Neighbourhoods, Criminal Networks and Citizen Focus, in the context of drug harm reduction.

10. Management Board have agreed that the strategy will focus on following seven key activities:

• Tackling Class A drug trafficking.
• Disrupting open drug markets – tackling blatant use in public places.
• Closing crack houses.
• Disrupting cannabis cultivation by organised criminal networks.
• Arresting and diverting drug-addicted Prolific and Priority Offenders.
• Working together in partnership – supporting communities.
• Seizing assets/disrupting funding.

11. The strategy advocates that policing activity should be community focussed and should address locally identified problems in the worst affected neighbourhoods. The vision is that we will work to reduce the harms of greatest concern to Londoners identified through consultation involving Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

12. The strategy will continue to ensure that drugs harms are tackled at all levels within the National Intelligence Model. At level 1, the focus will be on locally identified harms at the neighbourhood and borough level. At levels 2 and 3, the focus will be on disrupting and dismantling the organised criminal networks involved in trafficking the drugs that end up impacting on local communities. The seven key activities listed above will inform all levels of activity.

13. The MPS presently has Safer Neighbourhoods, Criminal Networks and Citizen Focus as three of its seven priorities. The Drugs Strategy underpinned by MPS values will complement performance in these areas.

C. Race and equality impact

1. This work is intelligence-led. Intelligence shows that different patterns of criminality are associated with different communities.

2. Criminal networks and gangs involved in drug supply are drawn differentially from a range of ethnic groups. Enforcement activity against criminal networks will be prioritised according to the level and nature of the harm they cause.

3. Drug users and associated crime impact adversely on the worst affected neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods are often the most economically deprived and may have higher than average representation of minority ethnic communities.

4. Stop and search is a key power in drugs enforcement. Section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 provides a power to stop and search for drugs. It is recognised that there are proportionality issues around the use of stop and search in the MPS. If stop and search is more widely employed as a result of this strategy it is likely it will be part of the existing proportionality issue rather than raise new concerns.

5. A similar level of treatment for drug users is generally available pan-London. We aim to have the highest risk offenders prioritised into treatment, in collaboration with treatment services.

6. Education and publicity initiatives will take into account the needs of different sections of the population.

D. Financial implications

1. The Central Drugs Trafficking Database (CDTD) project has been funded by money from the Home Office at the rate of £100K a year over two years, funding will not continue into 2007/8. The CDTD is currently being evaluated and it has been agreed that this work will move into the new Metropolitan Intelligence Bureau where the next stage of the project will look at ways of adapting the CRIS crime reporting system to improve its drugs intelligence potential. This will not involve a requirement for additional funding.

2. It is estimated that it would cost £1.8 million to expand the Drugs Intervention Programme to the remaining 11 MPS boroughs (not including Heathrow). This is largely for staffing costs for Designated Detention Officers (DDOs) to be employed to conduct drug tests in 13 additional custody suites. The cost of the follow-on process from the drug tests is £4.1 million this would be commissioned by the National Treatment Agency (NTA) who distribute Home Office funding.

3. The London-wide expansion of this programme to target Priority and Persistent Offenders (PPOs) is supported by the Home Office and is included in the strategy as a medium to long-term plan. However, it is contingent upon Home Office funding and will not be undertaken without it. Despite strong initial indications, the Home Office has indicated that it is not in a position to provide any funding for the next planning year.

4. The implications for the eleven boroughs that would not be receiving Drug Intervention funding are:

• Inconsistent approach – people arrested in non-DIP boroughs will not have the same intervention opportunities as those in DIP boroughs.
• Non-DIP boroughs will not be able to target PPOs through the use of drug testing.
• Non DIP boroughs will not benefit from the enhanced levels of service as DIP Boroughs including;
  • Drugs workers in custody suites and courts
  • Care co-ordination
  • 24/7 help lines
  • Single points of contact
  • Rapid prescribing service.

E. Background papers

• Home Office online report 24/05 - definitions of harm – Home Office Drug Harm Index
• Drugs - facing facts – Report of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Commission on Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy, March 2007
• A paper on DIP was presented to the MPA Police Performance and Review Committee in May 2005

F. Contact details

Report author: Commander Allan Gibson, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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