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UK: Why the new head of ACPOS is a law unto himself
Sunday Herald, Glasgow
Sunday 29 Jun 2003 Open-minded chief tells it like it is on drugs, crime and punishment HE could well be the hippest cop in Britain, running the most progressive police force in the UK. John Vine, the chief constable of Tayside Police and the officer who is to become Scotland's de facto top cop when he becomes president of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland this week, is a remarkable police chief. Toeing the line isn't for him. If he thinks something is right and good for the public and his officers then, refreshingly, he'll tell it like it is. First of all, he doesn't pull his punches over drugs -- and he is squarely behind a Royal Commission. 'We need a more open debate about drugs,' he says, 'and far less hysteria. If a Royal Commission allows us to have this debate then I'm in favour of it.' In Tayside's Dundee HQ, Vine, who at 47 is one of the UK's youngest chief constables, runs a needle exchange programme where heroin addicts can hand in 'dirty works' and get clean needles. It's sure to make some foam at the mouth, but it cuts down on crime and it saves addicts from the ravages of HIV. It's an 'extension of the police's social responsibility', he says. 'We have to put far more effort into treatment than enforcement. It's no use filling prisons with addicts, the best thing to do is put effort into treatment.' He supports drug courts that give treatment orders to addicts rather than jail, and is horrified by the waste of Scotland's 300 annual drug deaths. 'I've no qualms about pushing the boundaries to deal with drug addiction in an innovative way. I've spoken to Dutch drug workers about shooting galleries [controlled areas where addicts can safely inject heroin], and I don't see why we shouldn't debate these issues.' Giving 'chaotic drug users' a more stable life, he says, inevitably reduces crime. 'I'm not just being altruistic,' Vine adds, 'it's business. My business is preventing crime and preserving life'. On the downgrading of cannabis from Class B to C, he says: 'There's no reason why we shouldn't try this, but I don't think there's any reason to go any further until we see how things pan out.' He agrees that alcohol causes far more social harm than drugs: 'A recent initiative we had seizing alcohol from under-age kids had more impact on community safety than anything we could have done about drugs. Drink and violence go hand in hand.' Vine, who opposes the routine arming of the police, is also championing the use of baton rounds in Scotland. He wants his firearms officers to go equipped with plastic baton-round guns, as well as real guns. It's similar to the way he's encouraged officers to use CS spray instead of their side-batons. 'CS spray keeps an assailant at bay and causes very little injury,' he says. 'If you hit someone with a baton you can hurt them. If my firearms officers are faced with someone who might have a replica gun, then they have the option of using a baton round rather than shooting them.' But don't mistake Vine -- a Yorkshireman who went to a sink school and trained as a lawyer -- for some touchy-feely cop either. With 'ned culture' and youth crime and disorder at the top of the political agenda, Vine wants a serious crackdown on feckless parents. Not only should police be in schools teaching children good citizenship, he says, but parents who fail to control their children should be legally compelled to take parenting classes, fined if they fail again and even jailed as a last resort. 'There is a generation of parents who couldn't give a damn what their children are doing. It is unrealistic to hold police and teachers accountable if their parents aren't -- in fact it's perverse. If you are an adult, you look after your kids, otherwise you're pathetic.' Vine also backs tagging hardcore child offenders and imposing curfews on them. 'I'd rather have that than lock them up in institutions, which isn't a good thing. ' He may applaud some government plans, but he isn't immune to criticising politicians. ' It is unrealistic to think the police can solve all society's ills. More and more I hear politicians implying that we are the panacea. 'In the past we've been a can-do organisation. But there is a limit to what we can do. Politicians pass legislation and intentionally or unintentionally there's a burden on the police. We have to be prepared to say: 'Sorry, I don't agree with you and that's something we can do without.'' He's outraged that police still deal with lost property in 2003, saying it costs massive amounts of manpower which could be spent policing problem estates. 'We haven't been robust enough with government,' he says. Referring to experiments and suggestions by the Labour government, such as dragging offenders to cash tills to pay on-the-spot fines, Vine says: 'Too much experimentation can be a bad thing -- a bit more consistency of approach can pay dividends. I pin a lot of hope on working with kids in primary schools and working with addicts -- these will have long-term results. But the problem is politicians want results in the short term. 'There is a tension between the political imperative and what works in the longer term -- but you don't get headlines for that. We have a responsibility to advise politicians on what is workable and what will never work in a million years. We should be able to say quite strongly, 'That's wacko'.' He believes huge headway has been made in tackling racism, sexism and homo-phobia in the police. And in his force it seems effective. Tayside was the first force in Scotland to have a minority advisory group come in to quiz officers, and was also the first to have diversity training for all staff. Tayside is also the first force with a transsexual officer going for gender reassignment. 'He was received very well by his colleagues,' Vine says. 'I don't know if we're the hippest force in Britain, we're just trying to do our best for Tayside.' It seems to work: detection rates are up 6.5%, sick leave down 1%, housebreaking down 18% and car crime down 17%. And unlike many forces, Vine -- the chief -- goes out and nicks criminals himself. In a bid to get more bobbies on the beat, Vine has come up with another innovation exclusive to the force: the creation of the new rank of leading constable. This will be better paid than an ordinary PC, and Vine believes it will encourage good cops to stay on the beat. He also intends, in his new Acpos role, to tackle the government's skewed targets system. Many officers believe simply filling quotas of arrests or drug seizures is meaningless, and doesn't provide better safety for the public. Vine wants the government to begin long-term assessment of public opinion to measure how well the police perform. Another bugbear for Vine is the dire state of police training. Despite the government putting increased emphasis on racially aggravated crime, anti-social behaviour and crimes against women and children, Vine says it is not uncommon for beat officers to go their entire careers without relevant training. 'It's bad,' he says. 'It's a waste of time producing strategies unless front-line people are trained to make them a reality.' Vine also worries that new pay settlements -- effectively performance-related bonuses -- will damage teamwork . Vine is cautious about what he jokingly refers to as 'Minority Report' policing. ID cards, iris scans and national DNA databases are all concepts he is sceptical about. 'We have to be careful about civil liberties,' he says. 'We have something unique in the UK, which is the vast majority of people going about their business without having to carry an ID card. I'd regret a move in that direction, and I don't think as a tool it would really help the police.' Vine says criminals could easily fake ID cards. He says civil liberties appear to be more respected in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, where a DNA sample from a suspect can be kept on record despite a not-guilty verdict. But while much of what Vine says chimes with the liberal middle-classes, he's also a big advocate of 'zero tolerance' -- the idea that cracking down on litter and graffiti has a ripple effect through society, lowering crime. 'I speak as I find,' he says. 'I don't say what people want to hear. I've made my career by making change. That's what I'm doing here.' 29 June 2003
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