Chapter 6: Responding to Low-Level Markets
Policing low-level markets
As set out in Chapter 2, interviews were undertaken with 24 serving police officers, distributed fairly evenly across all three case study areas. The interviews were semi-structured in nature and all followed the same basic course, allowing for local variation in policing organisation and approach. This section of the Report sets out the findings from these interviews, in conjunction with community, professional and user interviews, to identify similarities and differences between the three areas.
Prioritising drug crime
Police respondents from all areas reported that they had to impose limits on the amount of time they devoted to dealing with drug-related crime.
"However, we could end up doing the drugs work every day. We could quite easily go out there and get drugs work every day but nobody (would do) the crime work and trying to identify patterns and get to the bottom of the crime problem. So we have to balance out the crime work and the drugs work".
(Police Superintendent, Fishton)
"…wouldn't say there was any priority to go out and deal with drugs. I would say it's just part and parcel of everything we deal with".
(Hailton)
"If we've got a focus on drugs all the time, we could very quickly get swamped with drugs cases and that leaves your crime rampant and out of control so we need to try and focus on the crime and keep a mindful eye on the drugs and try and do what we can with that if the resourcing side allows".
(Sergeant, Proactive Unit, Tannochbrae)
Officers in Tannochbrae and Fishton complained that they can be pulled off drugs work and asked to attend to other things. Even the presence of a dedicated drugs unit based at the Fishton station did not seem to alleviate this problem. The sergeant explained:
"…when I'm trying to concentrate on an operation or organise an operation, I can be then pulled away to deal with something else, you know, and it regularly happens like that, regularly".
(Crime Reduction, Fishton)
Divisional Housing Initiative Team ( DHIT) officers in Hailton are protected from this. Six of the officers based at the station are funded through the City Council.
"Yeah, we've six officers here who are council funded. Not solely at the beck and call of the council at all, but the council between ourselves and Y, have funded 12 officers for the city. So their remit is to man their area in conjunction with housing associations, the council, it's all local problems, that's involving neighbours, youths etc, and they concentrate on that. Doesn't mean that they don't investigate crime, because crime runs hand in hand with neighbourhood problems and problems with youths etc, and they do a lot of anti social behaviour orders, and just try to make life better for the decent, cleaner living people".
(Sergeant, Community Unit)
This does not mean that they concentrate solely on drugs although a considerable amount of their time is devoted to responding to drugs and related issues. What it does mean is that they can spend time really getting to know their area and building up trust with the local community, as the following quotes illustrate.
"The idea of the project is to work with agencies within the local community to basically look at anti-social behaviour, focusing on anti-social behaviour and quality of life issues in the community, and that's a huge umbrella, so I think it simply comes down to looking for local solutions to local problems".
"The situation we're in, we are, we will be working in the area allocated us - we won't be going to football matches, we won't be going up the town for demonstrations, we won't be getting extracted out of the area. We will be here".
(Community Housing Initiative Officers)
Resource issues
What became apparent from interviews conducted with police in all three case-study areas was the pressure they are under to show results, and to show results commensurate with the level of resources they have committed to particular operations. In Fishton there is an acknowledged need to work at various levels, to target street-level dealers (usually user/dealers) as well as those higher up the chain. Individual officers may target level 1 (street-level) dealers but most resources, they believe, should be targeted at dealers higher up the chain. A Tasking and Co-ordinating Group meets fortnightly and provides the ideal basis for taking a strategic approach rather than targeting a dealer just because he is seen to be active at the moment. There are good links with the local drugs squad and with the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.
However, some officers expressed concerns that it seems to be the sufficiency of the intelligence and the likelihood of obtaining a warrant that drives the decision to act against a dealer, rather than a consideration of the resource implications and likely return. Respondents acknowledged that dealers appear to have learnt from past experience and have adapted their activities to frustrate police success.
"…the last couple of weeks, we went to three doors, two of which we believe they flushed down the toilet, but it wasn't just a case of that- they put all obstacles in our way - fortified doors, again street dealers or the street addicts are so attuned to the police activity, they swallow drugs all the time, they walk about (with it) in their mouths, they keep it banked, concealed internally, they're just so more attuned. Maybe it's the same everywhere, but I just seem to notice it far more in (Fishton) that they're like that".
(Sergeant, Drugs Unit)
Their colleagues in Tannochbrae agreed. Most police activity is targeted at Level 2 dealers - dealer/users - as this brings a better result for the level of resource that needs to be invested. Even then, sometimes there just are not enough staff to safely execute a warrant.
"We've had warrants for his arrest, but we've had problems mustering the staff to effectively go and search premises to apprehend this guy because there's only myself and the other two that are on at the moment. You really need two at the door anyway, at least one at the front and one at the back, and another one, depending on how many's in the house, so it's a problem at the moment".
(Sergeant, Proactive Unit)
Problems were also reported in Hailton and Tannochbrae concerning difficulties with the legal system. A Hailton officer explained the frustration he experiences in dealing with the Procurator Fiscal:
"I've seen people from the housing department 29, they were trying to make an anti-social behaviour order against a particular dealer who's been dealing quite actively for the past couple of years. His house has been searched a number of times and drugs have almost always been seized, and unfortunately the courts have taken no proceedings on six separate occasions so the housing department need a conviction before they can evict for anti social behaviour, and we keep reporting all his drugs offences to the Procurator Fiscal, but if no proceedings take place, there's no conviction, so we're back to square one".
(Housing Initiative Officer)
Another Hailton respondent described three drug-related incidents over the past 3 months. Due to the wait for a warrant by the time they searched the dealer's flat, all the drugs and in one case the dealer too had gone. There were also far fewer house searches now than there used to be due to lack of manpower. Even when warrants were issued and executed and dealers were brought to court, Tannochbrae police faced feelings of powerlessness and frustration following the system's apparent lack of 'teeth':
"About 18 months ago we were having particular problems with a family that were dealing drugs from a flat just on the outskirts of the town centre. And that problem came to us, it fell below the remit of the drugs squad and it came down here and we ended up searching that premises maybe four times in six months, and it's quite frustrating because you would get them in, you would interview them, put them to court and then they'd be bailed and they were back doing the same thing the next day, despite all your hard work".
(Sergeant, Proactive Unit)
This proved doubly frustrating to Tannochbrae respondents. Not only was their resource investment apparently wasted, but also the local community thought the police were failing to do their job properly.
"… the public are still on the phone complaining about the drug dealing at this flat and nothing really seemed to be getting done. It took 18 months. The two of the family were recently sentenced to about 3 and 5 years respectively, and that took about two years to get them sentenced which is frustrating, because the public has this perception that nothing's really getting done, and they're getting away with murder basically, dealing drugs to their hearts' content, no matter how many times we turned the premises, they werenae particularly concerned at coming here, they'd tell their story and then away back out and get bailed at court and they're out again and start again".
(Sergeant, Proactive Unit)
Intelligence gathering
Difficulties experienced with managing resource limitations, coupled with changes in overall policy within the police, has led to an emphasis among respondents in all three areas on the collection of drugs intelligence. It is felt that the development of an intelligence 'package' will result in a greater likelihood of success. Although street-level dealers are still targeted to some extent, the focus of most of these intelligence packages appears to be higher up the chain.
A Tannochbrae respondent explained the importance of this approach in securing a good return for the resources invested:
"I think for that operation we had somewhere in the region of 12 officers at double time to do that, so if you're talking about overtime and financial implications, I've got a great deal of political pressure to try to achieve a result from that because of how much money it was costing. And that's why being intelligence led is obviously so important, to try to maximise the goals, maximise the results as it were".
(Drugs Squad)
Respondents acknowledged a need to share intelligence and work co-operatively with the drug squad and the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency. They need to be aware of what level dealer they are targeting as this person may already be the subject of an operation higher up the chain.
Respondents told us that they would gather intelligence from any and all possible sources. This includes surveillance - both static and mobile, information from users arrested for other reasons, information collected following a stop and search, information from partner agencies, from informants and from members of the public.
"Yeah, the slightest thing, put it in because it might be of no use to you whatsoever, but somebody else'll go in and go - so you never discard anything. That's the way I work, anything at all, bung it in. If it's of no use, it's not done any harm putting it in. We thrive on it, intelligence, we cannie get enough of it".
(Sergeant, Hailton)
Police in Hailton, especially those working with the DHIT team, were particularly focused on developing good links with the local community.
"I think with my job there is a value in it that you are a well known face in the community. You have to build up that level of trust over a period of time".
Gaining trust was part of being a well-known face in the area. This could also help the police through securing the support of the community in acting against local drug dealers, and also other forms of anti-social behaviour. This is further discussed below. A similar approach was reported in the remaining case study areas through the use of community wardens to liaise with, and pick up intelligence from the local public.
Much intelligence will come from users themselves, although it is not always easy to persuade them to part with information, especially if the user believes s/he risks losing access to their drug supply, or worse, if it becomes known that they have co-operated with the police.
"Unless you've caught them coming away from that (dealer's) house, it's very rare that they'll tell you, very rare. I suppose because some of the dealers again, due to intimidation and we often hear stories about folk getting beaten up or they'll be in custody with black eyes and I'd somebody in last week with bruises round his neck and winna tell you how they got it".
(Operational Officer, Fishton)
However, many users spoke of their unwillingness to provide statements, since this would be seen as 'grassing'. A mixed view existed in Fishton. Two users reported that frequent acts of 'grassing' would mean the arrest rate would go up and the dealers would react by closing ranks and only dealing to a select number of trusted users. However, one respondent claimed that users would never 'grass' on a dealer for fear of violent reprisals as a consequence. No user reported this practice in either Tannochbrae or Hailton.
Police respondents reported that they will gather intelligence from a range of agencies they work with, including the Council, the DSS, and housing, but the local community often provide the best source.
"But I would say that the vast majority of the best information gets passed from the members of the public out there, speaking to people, getting to know people. Whoever they identify as a problem in a street, in a block of flats, in an area - get out there and get to know the people. They're not involved, they're having problems with these people, they want rid of it as well".
(Tannochbrae)
However, if a member of the public contacts the police with information about drug use or drug dealing, and then the police appear to be taking no action as a result, that too can cause difficulties. Respondents from all areas told us that when people come forward with information, and then nothing seems to happen, they may think the police are not taking it seriously and therefore stop offering information. But the police need to assemble intelligence from a variety of sources to put together a 'package' of intelligence which they will then act on. Respondents admitted that, on occasion they will act against lower level dealers just to show the public that they are taking the matter seriously.
Tannochbrae police explained the message they are currently trying to put across to the local community regarding the passing on of useful information. This is based on experience gained from the execution of a successful police operation against drug dealing in a nearby town.
"If people don't want to speak to us directly then they'll freephone Crimestoppers and provide us with the information and we'll try to put across the lessons that the community in (Town) have learned, that if they pass us this information, something might not happen tomorrow, next week or next month, but it'll go towards building up the big picture and yes, your information will not be forgotten about, it'll not be discarded, and we will act on it, but we have to do it in our own time, because we have to gather the intelligence and gather the evidence before we put it to the court".
(Detective Inspector, Tannochbrae)
Not all respondents were wholeheartedly in favour of this intelligence-gathering approach. Officers in Hailton reported less links with drugs work, now, following reorganisation. They used to be able to follow through the whole process from intelligence gathering to search, arrest and conviction. Now they are responsible for contributing intelligence to packages, which are then dealt with by the Divisional Drugs Unit, by officers who are less well acquainted with the local area. It has also proved difficult for local officers to get search warrants, as they now have to approach the Procurator Fiscal or the Sheriff, whereas it used to be just the local JP. Now nearly all drugs searches are handled by the plain clothes branch.
"Operation (Z) has moved the focus away from crime prevention and onto responding and detection. Better for police stats but not for developing a rapport with the local community".
(Housing Initiative Officer)
A minority of interviewees in the other areas agreed, worried about the usefulness of the intelligence packages that have now become such an important feature of drugs work.
"My view is that a lot of these packages are simply produced to keep the figures that the intelligence bureau have for producing stats artificially high. I don't think there's any intelligence to justify some of the packages that they put out".
However, most respondents appeared to be in favour of this approach. One officer explained that it was definitely delivering results:
"Before, when you used to do raids, we were finding that the recoveries were nae always very good. Quite often it wasnae that good. You'd get the information all the time about people and quite often the warrants, when they were being executed, there was nowhere near the amount of drugs which we were expecting to find. So quite often the information we get we'll - if it warrants it - then we'll carry out our own enquiries and it may be surveillance or it could be informants to back up the information so we're finding now that when we do actually go to do some of the searches, you know, execute warrants and quite often got enough evidence to charge the person anyway".
(Drug Squad)
Police operations
The interview period coincided with police operations targeted at drug dealers and users in two of the three case-study areas. In Tannochbrae, Operation X had been initiated following the success of the similar Operation Y in a nearby town. A sergeant from the Proactive Unit explained:
"A recent Operation Y through in [town] about a year ago, as a result of that operation through in [town], I know that [town] was clean of drugs for a period of time. We've been told that by users who were coming through from [town] into Tannochbrae to source drugs".
However, Operation Z in Hailton had met with less success, as reported by a Sergeant from the Community Unit:
"…but because we're doing Operation Z, whatever, doesn't mean that we're going to have any success, because I've done Operation Z when it was seven or eight houses hit, and it was anything but successful. Minor quantities of amphetamine and cannabis, I think, were found".
Amongst users and community respondents specific knowledge about police operations was lacking. The majority were aware that 'something' had happened in Hailton and Tannochbrae, but could not provide details. Those who could were largely user/dealers and ex-user/dealers that had been arrested by the police during the operation.
For both 'Operation X' in Tannochbrae and 'Operation Z' in Hailton users spoke of the difficulties, in terms of reduced availability this police activity had generated.
"One operation…made it harder to get drugs for a few weeks but it didn't last long".
(Male, User)
One ex-user who had been caught up in Operation X reported its repercussions:
"Last year there, there was no drugs whatsoever, people were going further afield to get the drugs and bringing them back to Tannochbrae, cutting it to death and bumping folk basically. Because of this Operation [X], it went on for 2 years, undercover police operation. They were going to Carlisle, Liverpool, Brixton, bringing it back".
(Male, Ex-User)
Similarly one ex-user in Hailton reported his experience of a local police operation:
"Well, there was all the busts, wasn't there, Operation [Z], and it's still going on…they were just targeting known dealers and hitting them hard…I've been in houses where they have been busted, I've also been in houses when the people have just jumped through the windows with their dealers and bolted and the police are like, eh?"
(Male, Ex-User)
He was unable to go into further detail about the Operation. When asked whether the operation had been successful (in terms of reducing the supply of drugs locally) he responded that any changes had been short-term only. Ultimately, he argued, the availability of drugs would increase as new dealers arrived on the scene to replace the ones moved on by the police.
For each area amongst professional respondents the use of dedicated resources was seen to have a short-term effect in terms of displacement and availability. In Fishton, for instance:
"…That you can arrest 22 people and within 48 hours the market will be flourishing as it was previously. People will go somewhere else for a couple of days and then that'll be them. And considering how much resource go into that kind of campaign…"
(Sergeant, Crime Reduction)
This view was common amongst respondents, both in Fishton and in the other two case study areas.
Impact of policing
Reduction in availability
Our respondents were realistic about the impact of police activity in reducing the overall availability of drugs in their areas. They do, however believe that they are 'holding the line', stopping the problem growing any larger than it already is. Limited by lack of resources, they face an opposition who are fast learners and able to adapt their dealing behaviour to frustrate police activities. It was often seen as a war of attrition.
"So we've become smarter, we've become better at it and as a consequence, the drug dealers have got better as well. They tend to deal in smaller amounts so that if we catch them, they may run down to the city two, three, four times a day and bring back small amounts rather than go and get one big amount because if we catch someone with two or three ounces of heroin they'll go to jail for a long period of time. If we catch someone with an eighth of heroin which is 20 deals, they maybe only get a monetary fine".
(Drug Squad, Fishton)
But the police could adapt their approaches as well:
"It may very well be that we'll try something different. It doesn't always pay us to go to a door with a ram, sometimes we need to be a bit sneakier and put someone up in a postie's uniform or something, or indeed we've even done it where we've put a uniformed officer up to the door to knock on the door, on a spurious enquiry and as soon as the door's opened, we then rush in".
(Detective Inspector, Fishton)
Respondents in Hailton were concerned that recent reorganisation of their policing approach had reduced their effectiveness to act against dealers:
"I know a few people that's in the crime patrol and they're basically telling us they're finding it harder to crack down on the drug scene because they've got a bigger area to cover as well and before when they used to be based here, they could go out and spend a shift walking about, and picking up a lot of good information whereas now they're away from the (Hailton) area, and they only come up basically to do hits on houses and stuff like that, so yeah I would say, I wouldn't think it has much effect on the dealings going on just now".
(Response Officer)
However, police action can make dealers change they way they operate, at least in the short term.
"I would think when you hit down, carry out an operation against drug users, everybody who was involved in dealing drugs, a significant time after that, they're always looking over their shoulder, some give up dealing for a short time because they're not sure whether the police are actually looking at them, they test the water to see what's actually going on there, the supply obviously dries up for a time, people become more clandestine in their dealings, some move away from street dealing, for example".
(Community Safety, Tannochbrae)
"Action against dealers only has short-term effects although you do occasionally see desperate users going around, trying to score when a higher-up dealer is taken out by the police".
(Community Sergeant, Hailton)
Respondents admitted that dealing is so lucrative there is always someone else to take over whenever a high level dealer is arrested.
"Because if we take out the highest level drug dealer, there's somebody there to fill his boots just the day after, unfortunately. But then again we can't give up on the detection. We have to show that we're willing to take the full force of the law and do everything we can to target these individuals, but there's absolutely no doubt that I've missed more drugs in my service than I have found. You could triple the size of police officers in the area and still you could probably question whether or not we're being as effective as we'd like to be".
(Sergeant, Drugs Unit, Fishton)
Even taking dealers to court did not necessarily stop them dealing.
"We find that if we catch someone and they're arrested and charged and put to court, and if they're released by the court, it's not very often that that's them stopped. They'll maybe just change or they may stop for a very short time but they'll go back to it. You hear stories about people that are even in the jail they're still running it from the jail. That's what we find, that if we catch someone and they're bailed from the court, they're back at it very soon after".
Both users and professionals commonly felt that dealers had developed tactics to avoid law enforcement, with any given successes by the police being 'cancelled-out' by dealers being replaced.
Two users in Hailton spoke of the successes the police have had.
"The approach of the police is busting people left, right and centre. Six people were busted last week, it happened to a friend who was sentenced for four years".
(Male, User)
But in Hailton, in particular, professional respondents told us how dealers would adapt their approach in response to police activity. For instance, dealers are now dealing in smaller amounts of heroin as a tactic developed in response to the police and the possibility, if caught, of incurring a large prison sentence for intent to supply rather than simple possession. Dealing in some areas had moved indoors, moving away from Closed Circuit Television ( CCTV) areas . In Tannochbrae the use of CCTV in the town-centre had dispersed dealing to neighbouring housing estates.
Meanwhile, users in Fishton spoke of dealers in the area having turned their homes into 'fortresses' to delay police entry, as reported by a male user:
"Most dealers have numerous locks/bolts on thick metal doors and a small wall behind the door with metal rods propped against the door. So the time the police have got in the drugs are down the toilet or have been swallowed".
(Male, User)
In each area the threat of law enforcement was not seen as the main determining factor in an individual starting to deal. The implication is that whilst dealers are fully aware of the consequences of being caught dealing, they continue to do so, firstly because they believe that detection can be avoided and secondly because the money gained by a user/dealer is an attractive incentive to continue. As one ex-user/dealer reported, the financial gain for dealing is huge:
"Say if I was to buy an ounce of smack (heroin) tomorrow for about eight hundred quid I could make about three grand off that, do you know what I mean, in tenner bags. Maybe more than that, it all depends on how good you put it out at".
(Male, Ex-User/Dealer - Tannochbrae)
Another user told us that if a dealer was arrested:
"Two would take his place…it's so easy as a user to go and deal, I'm so glad I never got involved with it, but it is so easy to go and deal, my friends have done it, and it's not to be a dealer, do you know what I mean, its to supply your own chain, it's a vicious circle really…Say if you are buying five bags then you have got four of them to make your money back and then you have got one free, and that's how it starts…then the greed sets in".
(Male, Ex-User - Hailton)
Disrupting markets
The police feel that they have made greater progress in their approaches to disrupting drug markets. This generally comprises any action to stop drug dealing or to interfere with the dealing process. A number of inventive approaches were discussed:
"But we also have this sort of disruption where we'll just do anything really that we can to disrupt their activity, so if 1, Main Street is where somebody's operating from, we may have enough evidence to get a warrant to do something there, but what we can do is we can disrupt their activities by making it hard. Do you really want to go and buy drugs from somewhere that's appeared on the front page of the local paper? That sort of thing".
(Crime Reduction Sergeant, Fishton)
"On the disruption side, every year we identify our top dealers and we send them Christmas cards, wishing them a very happy Christmas and reminding them that as in all years, we will continue to target those who are concerned in the supply of controlled drugs. Initially when we started doing it we got complaints coming in from solicitors in floods. Now it's accepted. It's disruption".
(Tannochbrae)
'I've even seen us parking a police car outside someone's address and just sitting there because it really unnerves them. It upsets them, disrupts them.'
(Hailton)
The supply (and thus availability) of illicit drugs was seen by users and others as simply displaced rather than removed by police activities. Two professional respondents in Tannochbrae felt that they would know without being told when the police were actively targeting the supply of illicit drugs in the town as the cheap bus service to the South would suddenly become very popular, as numbers of drug users would pool their monies together to buy a larger amount of heroin. In terms of economies of scale and the purchase of heroin 'higher-up' the supply chain, this would provide relative value for money.
Market displacement, as a result of reduced availability was highlighted by users in all three areas. In Hailton, it was considered by the majority to be fairly easy to walk to another estate and access drugs from another dealer, as long as certain criteria were met (for example: the user looked the part and had local knowledge). This was due to the close proximity of the other estates (you could walk there) and the perception that the nearby estates would offer a similar setting to Hailton, endorsing familiarity (which was considered important). By contrast, in Fishton and Tannochbrae users reported a greater degree of inconvenience due to 'dry-ups' because of their relative geographical isolation; this is why certain bus routes may become popular. Users, particularly in Fishton, were keen to stress the limited number of occasions that this had occurred. One parent indicated that there was more likely to be a 'dry-up' in the town if there was a lack of heroin available in the nearby City.
Confidence of the local community
However effective the police are in acting against drug dealing and drug-related crime in their areas, they realise that part of what they need to do is to gain and retain the confidence of the local community and provide reassurance that they are taking the necessary action against drugs. Disrupting local drug markets can contribute to it, as can the high visibility policing practised by the DHIT officers in Hailton. One respondent explained.
"So how big an impact on the community - certainly the operation that we did this week, with the full force of the public order unit breaking down the door that everybody knows is dealing, has a major impact on the community perceiving that the police, and it is a perception, that the police are doing a lot to target that".
Intelligence-gathering initiatives can also show the community that action is being taken. Officers described a scheme called ' Deal the Dealer' involving leaflet drops in areas where they know there are dealers operating and asking members of the public to pass us information. In addition to its intelligence gathering initiative, it shows the dealer that they know what is going on. This has resulted in good publicity for the local force.
However, where things do not proceed so well, the local community can also be very vocal, making things difficult for the police. A Tannochbrae respondent told us:
"…the whole unit's spent two or three weeks looking at this family and we're back where we started with, effectively in the public's eyes, because you're still getting grief from the public about them dealing from a particular flat or a particular location. It's frustrating at times, frustrating".
(Sergeant, Proactive Unit)
The community will often complain about groups of (alleged) drug users hanging around their street and will tell the police that they are dealing and have been seen dealing. However, when asked to act as witnesses for a prosecution of the people they have complained about, they are less than willing to oblige. Police respondents explained that often members of the public just want the problem moved on somewhere else, somewhere out of their area, but they are unwilling to lend their support to the police to accomplish this, worried perhaps about the retribution that might ensue.
But many police respondents commented that the community must share responsibility with the police for combating drug crime. It was impossible for the police to tackle it on their own. In addition to being willing to stand up to dealers and give witness against them, the public should think twice about buying second-hand goods in pubs and from backs of cars, and should consider from where they have most probably come.
"When I've recovered some property, the very same people who are buying the stuff in the pubs are buying it from people who are known druggies. They don't think where are they getting it? Oh they must have got it from a cheap offsale. No, they've got it from a neighbour that they've just broken into but you're quite happy to buy it…. Let's have a bit of personal responsibility here for your actions. If somebody comes up to you with something in the back of a car and says, 'Do you want to buy that?', well, you're just kidding yourself on if you think, yeah, this must be a genuine deal."
(Sergeant, Tannochbrae)
In all three areas community respondents recognised the difficulty facing the police in trying to build a case against a particular dealer and successfully bringing this to court. The majority of current and ex-users in each area felt that the police were not targeting the right people, as users will (in the main) not 'grass' on a dealer. It was not generally seen as the best response towards dealers.
"They have a pretty poor response to drug dealers up here…they don't have any resources. I think they are sometimes overwhelmed by what they see and have to deal with. We only have two policemen".
(Parent of user, Fishton)
About two-thirds of the ex-users and ex-dealers agreed that it was difficult for the police to do any more than they were already doing because of limited resources. As one Hailton ex-user reported:
"What can they [the police] do? I am not sticking up for the police, but what can they do?...you stop one, and two [others] come along…the thing is, there is a demand for drugs, if you like it or not there is a demand for heroin and somebody has got to supply that…and if you look how much an amount is and how easy it is to hide that amount from the police…"
(Male Ex-User - Hailton)
Treatment approaches
The analysis below is based in interviews with treatment providers in each of the three case-study areas.
Fishton
In Fishton treatment services can be broadly split between the clinical team and the non-clinical community drugs team, which is part of social services, and the holder for the monies for detox and rehab. There appears to be clear tensions between these two teams in terms of assessment, referral and joint-working. There are strategic concerns regarding the limited screening procedures in place to judge need.
At the time this research was carried out, the DAAT had just set-up the criminal justice sub-group. Respondents raised concerns about the level of treatment capacity in Fishton to cope with the development of an arrest referral scheme.
The needle exchange was deemed by the co-ordinator of the scheme to be too far away from the city-centre. Due to its location she had been seeing a fall in the number of service users. To counter-act this she had started to give more needles out than recommended under national guidelines. She felt this was the only way to get users to access the service, and did not appear to have led to an increase in discarded sharps.
Tannochbrae
Tannochbrae is served by two services, one principally operating at Tier 2 and the other at Tier 3.
The Tier 3 service is reported to have a massive waiting list, referrals taking up to six weeks for an assessment. The arrest referral staff believe this is exerting a negative influence on the effectiveness of their scheme. There is a lack of shared care in the area, with only one practice delivering it.
Hailton
Hailton is served by a Tier 2 agency located in the centre of the community. It offers a needle exchange but, as for Fishton, this is not considered to be in an ideal location. Being placed on a housing estate creates the possibility of the incidence of discarded sharps leading to a real backlash within the community. If this occurred, it would be difficult to provide the service.
A practitioners' forum has been set up through the DAAT in recognition of the need for active linkages to tackle the area's persistent drugs problem.
The arrest referral scheme was acknowledged to be in its infancy. It was considered to be good at getting individuals onto the scheme, but possibly not so good at retaining them, due to the lack of formalised joint-working with treatment services, and services' restricted capacity. It was said that the scheme could be improved by being introduced to clients by trained arrest referral workers rather than by custody staff.
Views on treatment provision
Current and ex-users, dealers and parents of users were asked to report their experiences and perceptions of treatment agencies with which they had engaged. Many users and their parents, particularly those from Fishton and Tannochbrae, expressed concerns about their ability to access treatment in a timely manner. Lack of throughcare and aftercare and limited employment opportunities were also seen as problematic.
Waiting times
For both current and ex-users and their parents waiting lists for methadone prescribing were considered to be a major problem. Professional respondents spoke in a similar vein, of the inadequacies of lengthy waiting times for medical treatment. In Fishton in particular both professionals and users (in relative contrast to the other two areas) spoke strongly of the existence of 'long' waiting lists.
The medical model
In each area the lack of focus on a holistic treatment response, rather than a purely medical model was highlighted by professionals and users alike. In Tannochbrae, for example, users who had experience of accessing a drug support agency reported receiving no counselling or individual support, elements which they considered a vital component of 'recovery'.
Housing need was identified by two professional respondents in Tannochbrae, as not only an issue in terms of capacity, but one of matching the geographical location of available accommodation with the existing support network for the individual concerned. There was a fear that the lack of a strategic focus on housing need may compromise the process whereby other treatment and care needs can be effectively addressed.
Harm reduction
In Fishton, the actual location of the needle exchange, coupled with the high frequency of use and associated need for needles was considered by one respondent to be detrimental to users' needs. The overwhelming majority of users in Fishton argued that the needle exchange facility was too far out of town and somewhat inaccessible by public transport. One user specifically reported that he had encountered individuals asking him for needles as they did not want to cover the distance to the exchange facility.
An over-arching antipathy, towards injecting drug users in particular, was considered to be prevalent. One respondent gave an example of a client who had been humiliated and the subject of abuse in public due to being an injector of heroin. This fear and stigma was felt by the respondent to have been the determining factor in the decision to locate the clinic on the outskirts of the town on an industrial estate. Its location was not considered to be beneficial to the needs of injecting drug users, and particularly 'heavy-end' users. As a result the respondent had begun, based on the high percentage return rate, to give out larger batches of needles than recommended in the guidelines, as users were visiting the exchange infrequently, and showing increasing signs of harm when they did attend.
In contrast, the location of the needle exchange in Hailton was considered to be accessible for users, but due to its position within a housing estate, less than ideal for the wider community. This may in turn affect those visiting the scheme, as users may be intimidated due to their perceptions of ill-feeling from local residents.
The harm reduction service in Tannochbrae, unlike those in the other two areas, operates an outreach element. This involves delivering needles to users, and is a scheme which the local Alcohol and Drug Action Team considers ethical.
In both Hailton and Fishton respondents gave positive examples of community involvement in looking to provide services for drug users. One respondent in Hailton highlighted a particular example of a public meeting regarding local concern about needle stick injuries to young children. Expecting to be 'lynched', because of the sensitive subject nature he found the response of the community during the meeting to be realistic, accepting that users cannot be responsible for their use if there are no adequate facilities provided. This, in part, led to the establishment of the needle exchange in the area.
Lack of aftercare/throughcare
Where users and ex-users had experienced service provision they commented on a lack of aftercare and / or throughcare. The initial treatment and support received had been effective in most cases, but once the program had ended, there was a feeling of isolation and a sense of ' back to the same old set-up'. Support after completion of a program was considered a vital component of treatment.
One parent of a current user in Fishton described how aftercare provided at a service in Glasgow had worked exceptionally well and how her daughter (now 39 years old) had become abstinent. Other support offered, in a 'comprehensive package' included telephone support and assistance with finding accommodation and employment. The importance of ensuring that a user whom completed a treatment program did not return to the same place and circumstances was echoed by a parent in Tannochbrae.
A minority of users and ex-user/dealers who were able to relate their experiences of being in prison spoke firstly of the lack of intervention and support they received whilst inside, and secondly of the lack of post-release support.
Two ex-users discussed their abstinence from heroin (despite its availability) while in prison, but described how, upon release, they had quickly relapsed. This was echoed by parents/carers who had first hand knowledge of the effects of the lack of post-release support on their sons and daughters.
Lack of employment opportunities after treatment
A lack of employment opportunities was mentioned by the parents / carers of current users and by a few current users themselves in Fishton. The decline in the fishing industry meant that employment opportunities were limited across the area, but especially so if an ex-user was attempting to find employment. Respondents stressed the importance of finding and keeping a job in the struggle to achieve and maintain abstinence. If there were few local opportunities, ex-users could either leave the area or just start using once more.
Partnership working
In each area police respondents told how drug use and related crime has been combated by working in partnership with other agencies and with local communities. Professional respondents also spoke about this and, particularly in Hailton, felt that police resources were just not equal to the issue of drugs. It was felt that the only way forward was one of joint-working.
For the police co-operation takes place at a number of levels. Strategic partnership takes place through the Alcohol and Drug Action Teams, including initiatives aimed at diverting young people away from drug use. Although arrest referral schemes are in place they do not appear to have achieved their true potential. Co-operation with housing has proved a great deal more promising, using tenancy agreements and anti-social behaviour orders to evict known or suspected dealers. There are good links with the ambulance services and with Accident & Emergency Departments; the police in theory, although not always in practice, adopting a policy of attending cases of drug overdoses. Police in all areas stressed the importance of building and maintaining good working links with their local communities.
Strategic
In Tannochbrae, the Alcohol and Drug Action Team ( ADAT) is chaired by the chief constable. One of his more senior officers also chairs one of the sub groups of the ADAT, the availability sub group which is predominantly police, other uniformed services, coastguard, Fiscal service and people from the ADAT support team and others.
"It's about information, sharing of information and it's about planning. For example, we had a very well publicised operation over the past 18 months in [town], Operation X, it probably hit the national press if you didn't know about it anywhere else, and whilst there are lots of sensitivities because there were undercover agents working down there and obviously that information had to be kept very tight, when that part of the operation was over, the police were very good at sharing with other agencies what their plans may be in terms of arrests, picking people up, because you know when you pick people up, you cause a rift in the chain, so to speak, and other people maybe step in to take their shoes as regards buying and selling. They may have childcare responsibilities, and there would be others left in their family, there's a whole host of local issues for services that need to be picked up, so aye, that's an example of partnership working".
(Police Substance Misuse Co-ordinator)
In Fishton, the local ADAT Co-ordinator explained that they had only just set up the criminal justice sub group:
"… but the next meeting we will be looking in more depth at how we can integrate the police work into the group".
However, not all those interviewed thought the partnership currently works on equal terms:
"A lot of the time the police are left to take the lead where in true terms, we should be a partner, an equal partner, and I think in a lot of the cases, we're maybe to blame here, because we tend to be an organising, can do organisation whereas other people tend to sit back and (put a) tick in a box, we did participate, we were there, but what did they actually put in?"
(Superintendent, Fishton)
"As far as the police are concerned, or locally as far as what we see from it, we get very little benefit. We feed into that and we become involved with them but the police themselves get very little - mainly try and go out and identify what they can then put in place to try and encourage people to come forward to actually get assistance for that problem, be it alcohol or drugs".
(Detective Inspector, Fishton)
But other respondents could describe much more productive partnership working:
"We have an officer known as the LALO - Local Authority Liaison Officer, who's a sergeant based with the Council, so when the Scottish Executive are promoting something or putting money into something, say anti-social behaviour or crime reduction, then he will make me aware that there is an opportunity".
(Crime Reduction Sergeant, Fishton)
Hailton, in contrast to Fishton and Tannochbrae, comprises just a small part of a large City and does not warrant its own ADAT. The ADAT does not have a sub-group for availability. There is a wide membership to the Joint Commissioning Group, which reflects the differing pillars of the national strategy, so if a particular issue regarding availability is raised then a task focus group would form and subsequently disband once the specific objective was complete. A particular cited example involved young people (under 18) in Hailton dealing and/or injecting in stairwells.
The ADAT wants to refocus the police's role on harm reduction. They are regular attendees at DAT meeting but not at the JCG and the associated agency group. They could provide a useful contribution in relation to policing drug misuse and where they fit into harm reduction in the city. The ADAT believes the relationship between treatment services and the police was stronger in the past, but has suffered from recent re-organisation of both parties.
"Drug users need to learn that the police are not the enemy… but equally the police need to be aware that they can't just go into drug services and get information".
( ADAT Co-ordinator)
Police respondents in Hailton described partnership working on a smaller, local scale:
"I liaise with culture and leisure departments in the council, parks and recreation, at the moment we're trying to get a youth zone built for the kids. They say they've nowhere to hang out and they're always being moved on by the police or by residents. They don't want them hanging around at the end of their garden, so this is a youth shelter that we're trying to create in a park which is away from houses and it's a safe area where they can be without being moaned at or moved on, and even the police are happy, because they know where they are".
(Divisional Housing Initiative Officer)
Housing
In addition to the DHIT officers in Hailton, directly funded by the Council's Housing Dept., officers in the other two areas also reported close working with housing agencies. They used tenancy agreements with those occupying Council properties specifying that they would not deal, or permit dealing of drugs from their homes. The threshold of evidence required for the police to take action against a known dealer became much lower if an eviction was required than if the case had to go through the courts in the normal way.
Respondents also discussed the possibility of using Anti-Social Behaviour Orders as a means of taking action against dealers, even user/dealers dealing comparatively small amounts.
"Well an example of that is if you've got individuals - an example I'll quote is that we were aware that we had criminals from Liverpool operating within (Tannochbrae). They were actually subletting a house off a tenant of a social landlord. Now we were able to go to the landlord, say looking to identify these people, we understand they're subletting from one of your tenants which is obviously contrary to the tenancy agreement, so they then took steps through the civil route to address that".
(Sergeant, Community Protection Unit, Tannochbrae)
However, action could also be taken at a more informal level, a level that did not require either court action or eviction. A Hailton DHIT officer illustrated the point, by giving an example of using informal measures to counter graffiti in a block of flats:
"We went in, had a look at it, spoke to the families and we got the young people involved, because it wasnae too difficult to work out since it's their names they're writing on the wall, and we arranged, one Saturday morning, we went along and cleaned it off. What would have probably happened in the past, we would have been along and charged them with the offence of vandalism. They would then have went into the justice system and eventually you know, something may have happened or may not have happened and they'd have got warned about it, but that graffiti is still there, is still annoying to the people in the block. The situation I had was the people were there, they saw them cleaning it off and that's the matter of principle. And it was the embarrassment of having to do it and that's good".
Treatment agencies
All three areas operate an Arrest Referral system. However, police respondents in Fishton were doubtful of its efficacy.
"When it first started, a lot of people said yes. There's a lot of people come in now and say, 'oh no, I've been referred to them before' or 'I'm with them already', or a lot of them just aren't interested in coming off drugs".
(Crime Reduction Sergeant)
In Tannochbrae the Arrest Referral Scheme works on the basis that the police make names and contact details of arrestees available to The Arrest Referral Workers who then contact them at home rather than seeing them in the custody suite itself.
"No we contact them. We get the home address and a date of birth and then we send out an appointment".
(Arrest Referral Worker)
The police in Tannochbrae were pessimistic about the effectiveness of this approach.
"I've never actually seen anyone take up the scheme and then go further. I'm afraid that's it, we ask the question and they all say no".
Arrest Referral Workers covering Hailton include it in a much larger area so were unable to be specific about the Hailton residents they saw. However, they spoke positively about the support they received from the police.
"We get the space and police time in there which is necessary to get people to and from cells and all that, and a fair amount of co-operation which we're chipping away to try and increase all the time, but we do get a fair amount of co-operation from them, and with that, we've been able to effectively run a service that is actually getting people into treatment".
(Arrest Referral Worker)
Outside arrest referral, police links with treatment agencies appeared to be closer in Hailton than in the other two areas. However, one Hailton respondent commented that agencies might be suspicious about visits from uniformed police officers, so contacts that do occur happen over the telephone. He will refer drug users to treatment but only occasionally hears about the results of these referrals.
The inter-linking of police operations with effective treatment provision was cited by the overwhelming majority of professional respondents in each area as the way forward, with the police creating the potential, by disrupting market activities, for drug users to consider entering treatment. However, one respondent in Hailton argued that to successfully work alongside treatment services the police need to be able to show that they are not solely concerned with law enforcement, but that they are also interested in getting people into treatment. Within Fishton, for example, two treatment services highlighted their reservations and the possible difficulties about joint working with the police. For the police to win trust amongst drug users they need, for instance, to curtail their presence outside certain locations, including identified treatment services and the local pharmacy.
A 'positive' image of the Police was seen as necessary amongst professional respondents in Hailton to assist in the development of the arrest referral scheme. This would make the scheme more attractive for individuals to ' buy into' and make a real difference once the 'enhanced' parts of the service are in place, by getting people into, and retaining them in treatment. This would reduce the number of attempts an individual would need to make with the scheme before any progress is made, during which time they may still be offending and coming to the attention of the custody staff.
In each area the potential for the police to work alongside harm reduction services produced differing responses. In Hailton there was already a strong focus on the police working with services towards harm reduction. Two respondents spoke of the issue being pushed strategically, (within the Drug and Alcohol Action Team) to provide early interventions, and thus reduce the number of drug-related deaths. Similarly, the associated scheme in Tannochbrae has particularly strong working relations with the police, particularly with regard to its outreach component. In Fishton, however, there was no considered place for joint-working, barring the possible acceptance of the police's request for information, as it would negatively affect the reputation of the service, and the numbers of clients attending.
Accident and emergency
Following the publication of the Association of Drug Action Teams report on Drug Related Deaths in January 2005, and in advance of the publication of the National Investigation into Drug Related Deaths Report, in May 2005 the Scottish Executive tasked a short-life working group of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse ( SACDM) to consider both reports and to develop recommendations regarding the framing of a policy response that would support a future reduction in drug related deaths in Scotland. It recommended that:
- The Scottish Executive to commission in-depth applied research to identify whether the existing MOU between the police and ambulance service is in fact a barrier to witnesses calling emergency services to attend suspected drug overdoses.
- Research to be undertaken to identify the perceptions of drug users and those of their friends and family to automatic attendance by police at suspected drug overdoses, building on preliminary investigation undertaken by Scottish Drugs Forum with focus groups.
In practice, Hailton police have good liaison and joint working with A&E at the hospital. There is a police constable based at the hospital permanently. This covers all eventualities, not just drugs.
Police from Fishton and Tannochbrae reported that they normally attend instances of drug-related deaths and drug overdoses. They expect to be notified by the ambulance service if they are called to a suspected drug overdose.
"Yes, we attend every single one. We will always with an overdose, yes".
(Tannochbrae)
But in Fishton, this does not always happen in practice.
"But overdoses, we tend to arrive at the overdoses and the narcan's (Naloxone) been put in and the guys have got their details. Obviously they're searched under Section 23 and then they disappear. If there's an overdose, they're taken to the hospital and narcaned, and they run out the door after that, so the doctors won't bother contacting the police, you know, you can understand from their point of view as well. A lot of the overdoses that happen here, we don't know about unfortunately".
Local community
Police respondents from all three areas told us that they spent a good deal of effort establishing and maintaining links with the local community. This was most apparent in Hailton, where the DHIT officers spend much of their time getting to know, and getting known by the neighbourhood.
"I think with my job there is a value in it that you are a well known face in the community. You have to build up that level of trust over a period of time….I think that's where my role's a bit unique in that they have kind of built up a trust and they know that they can come and speak to me. People come up to me who are wanted on warrant, and they'll come up to me in the street and say I think there's a warrant for me, can I make an arrangement I'll hand myself in or what have you, whereas they wouldn't do that with officers they didn't know".
Respondents in Tannochbrae also described the importance of good community links:
"I think as a force we're pretty in touch with our community and I think the community get a good service from us compared with other forces. I think the community's done particularly well because we're such a wee police force and everybody knows everybody else, and because we're such a rural area, we're known in the community. The community speak to you when you're off duty, we've got community officers who have good relationships with the community but I'd like to think that we're all that kind of community officer".
(Sergeant, Proactive Unit)
Summary
Police respondents from all areas have to limit the amount of time they devote to tackling drug-related crime although Hailton respondents included a number of officers funded through the Council's Housing Dept who could devote all their time to their local 'beats' if not totally to drugs issues within those 'beats'. Police in all areas are under pressure to show results from operations against drug dealers, results commensurate with the level of resources invested. This has prompted a move towards targeting dealers higher up the supply chain and a more strategic approach, based principally around the development of packages of intelligence. Police gather this intelligence from all sources, from surveillance, from interviews with arrested users and dealers and particularly through links with the local community. Although there are still difficulties in reassuring the public that information passed to the police is not ignored just because immediate action isn't taken, there is evidence that this approach is beginning to prove itself.
Respondents were realistic about the impact of police activity in reducing the overall availability of drugs in their areas. However, the police believe that they are 'holding the line', stopping the problem growing any larger than it already is. Although arresting a high level dealer might affect the supply of drugs temporarily, the market is so lucrative that someone would soon come in to take their place. The police feel that they have made greater progress in their approaches to disrupting drug markets. This generally comprises any action to stop drug dealing or to interfere with the dealing process. This has the added advantage of demonstrating to the local community that the police are taking drugs seriously. However, the police believe that they are unable to solve the drug problem on their own. Success depends on all agencies working together. If they take drug crime seriously, then so should the local community and its constituent agencies.
Partnership working is a significant feature of all three areas. Strategic partnership takes place through the Drug and Alcohol Action Teams, including initiatives aimed at diverting young people away from drug use. Although arrest referral schemes are in place they do not appear to have achieved their true potential. Co-operation with housing has proved a great deal more promising, using tenancy agreements and anti-social behaviour orders to evict known or suspected dealers. There are good links with the ambulance services and with Accident & Emergency Departments; the police in theory, although not always in practice, adopting a policy of attending cases of drug overdoses. Police in all areas stressed the importance of building and maintaining good working links with their local communities.