Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Patrick Barkham

POLICE ON THE BEAT SEE 'SOFTLY, SOFTLY' FAILURE IN BRIXTON

FOR Constable Paul Needley, striding through Brixton town centre in the 
rain, David Blunkett's proposed reclassification of cannabis to a Class C 
drug is a grave disappointment.

He has experienced at first hand the effects of Lambeth's experimental 
"softly, softly" approach to cannabis on the streets of South London over 
the past year.

Since police stopped arresting people caught in possession of small 
quantities of cannabis, Brixton's drug problem has got worse, PC Needley 
said. "It's been an absolute failure. They'll tell you different," he nods 
towards his police headquarters a block away.

The policeman, standing at the corner of Brixton Road and Electric Avenue 
with PC Iain Logan, said that since the borough's experiment began they had 
found children "skinning up" before they got to school.

All the officers on patrol said that the new approach to cannabis had not 
helped their work and what they saw as their main task: catching those 
dealing in hard drugs.

As the officers turned towards the bus stop by the Kentucky Fried Chicken, 
the men sitting there drifted away. They were dealers and the police knew 
their faces and names, but unless they catch them laden with drugs there is 
little they can do.

One man walks briskly away clutching his mouth, as if he has toothache. The 
chances are it is crammed with cellophane wraps of crack cocaine that he 
will sell for ?9 each. "It is ?15 a wrap in Thames Valley, which shows you 
how common it is around here," PC Needley said.

"It's blatantly obvious what's going on," one young black woman ordering 
chicken and chips said. She did not understand why the police did not 
arrest the dealers. "If they get rid of them it'll make the area safer," 
she said.

Police chiefs in Lambeth estimate that the cannabis experiment freed 2,500 
hours of police time in the first six months. The officers on patrol 
estimate that 80 per cent of their day is spent tackling drug-related 
crime. Dealers frustrate them "most of the time", PC Logan said. "If we've 
got a dealer and he swallows, that's it," PC Needley added. "He'll go round 
the corner, puke it up and sell it next day."

The paperwork surrounding a drug arrest is still "unbelievable", according 
to PC Needley. When they simply seize cannabis from someone without 
arresting them, the paperwork "takes more time to do and there is no gain". 
The person they caution often gives them a false name. If he is a dealer, 
the intelligence is lost.

There are more police on the streets, however. When PC Needley began 
patrolling Brixton two years ago there were four officers on the beat; now 
there are ten. "You don't see anything whizzing round in a car. I much 
prefer to be on my feet," he said. "You can talk to people, it makes them 
feel safer," PC Logan added.

Most local people agree that police and community relations have improved 
since the experiment began. But there is still anger on Electric Avenue. 
"Don't believe everything he tells you," shouted one middle-aged woman 
about one of the officers.

As PCs Needley and Logan head off for lunch, their replacements race out of 
the station, radios crackling. A WPC is clambering over the garden wall of 
a boarded-up house round the corner. There are sounds of a scuffle. "You 
are now being searched," one of the officers tells the suspect pinned to ground.
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