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UK: Drugs policy turns failing force around
Daniel Foggo and Carl Fellstrom The Sunday Telegraph
Sunday 04 Dec 2005 The police force at the centre of a controversial Government drugs initiative has jumped from the bottom of performance tables for solving drugs crime to the top. It follows the decision that people possessing large amounts of Class A substances should not be prosecuted for dealing. Nottinghamshire Police chief constable Steve Green Nottinghamshire's chief constable Steve Green Official statistics show that in the space of a year Nottinghamshire Police has gone from being the joint second worst of England and Wales's 43 forces for clearing up drugs crime to the best in the country. But the transformation coincided with the force being used as the testing ground for the new policy for fighting drugs crimes. It means that anyone possessing seven grams of heroin or cocaine or 17 ounces of cannabis - enough for about 2,400 joints - is seen as having them for personal use. People with such quantities may previously have been prosecuted for dealing but are now charged with lesser offences requiring no further investigation. The policy was revealed last week and the Home Office now wants to roll it out nationally. Critics say the approach means that most pushers are escaping prosecution, and the Association of Chief Police Officers said that most would end up simply carrying amounts just below the prescribed limits. A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Police said officers were very pleased at the impact the policy had made on its statistical performance. But Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP for Newark, said the guidelines were a declaration to street drug dealers to ply their trade. He said: "The turnaround seems too good to be true to me. I am concerned that police are taking an easy option and concentrating on statistics rather than clearing up crime." Nottinghamshire's progression up the tables is all the more remarkable because its chief constable, Steve Green, told this newspaper in March that his officers couldn't cope with the number of murders in Nottingham, many related to drug turf wars. The scheme's effect on the statistics has been startling. In 2003-4 Nottinghamshire police recorded 4,582 drugs offences and claimed a "detection rate" of 89 per cent. The latter figure was well below the national average of 93 per cent and placed on a par with the West Midlands and Bedfordshire forces. Only the Metropolitan Police performed worse. But when the figures for 2004-5 were compiled, the number of drugs offences had dropped to 3,959 and the detection rate rocketed to 103 per cent.
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