We will continue to use an approach that supports both treatment and enforcement activity.
We will:
- Move people from young people's services into adult services when they reach the appropriate age
- Help move people to the appropriate service within the adult treatment system
- Provide different support for those people returning from residential rehab.
The DAT Treatemnt Plan provides details of treatment. Details of future police operations cannot be included in this plan however we will continue to target drug dealers using operations such as those detailed below:
Operation Lumberjack commenced in the latter part of 2007. A passive 'drug dog' is used during visits to licensed premises. At the time of writting this apprach had been used on 15 premises in Yarm and Stockton High Street.
The dog identified a number of positive drug detections, which resulted in:
- Four street warning for possesion of Cannabis (class C)
- One person arrested for possession of Amphetamines (class B)
- 12 people arrested for possesion of Cocaine (class A)
- Two people arrested for possesion with intent to supply concaine.
- Drugs disgarded at two premises
Those found in possession of drugs had their details taken and they were passed to the Pub Watch scheme; with a recommendation that landlords ban them from premises for six months to five years.
We will also continue to use operations to disrupt drug related crime. Such as:-
'Baildon' - Targeted people dealing crack cocaine and heroin at street level in certain wards. 28 people charged with consipracy to supply/supplying crack cocaine and/or heroin. Those sentanced at the time this plan was written received sentances totalling up to 49 years.
'Beavers' - Targeted crack cocaine and heroin network, four people charged with conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.
'Bamboo' - Targeted an operation producing cannabis, one person charged with production of a class C drug.
We will continue to monitor the number of people arrested for supply offences and drugs seized. In total from April 2005 to end of March 2008, 508 people were arrested for supply of a Class A drug. In 2007/08 we achieved 427 arrests for drugs including all classes of drugs and possesion offences.
The price of drugs on the street fluctuates during and between years and is now at a lower level than in 2005/06. the street value of drugs seized is recorded as the value at the time of seizure. During 2007/08 £1,168,871 street value of drugs was recovered, which is a big increase from the £125,716 recovered in 2006/07 and £224,687 recovered in 2005/06 more so because of the reductions in street value.
We will support the commissioning of an additional councellor and support workers for Crack users and to improve the Custody Liaison Service to include a family liason scheme that will help to reduce the harm on the wider family. We will also support the provision of Tenancy Awareness courses that will develop skills to help substance misusers maintain a tenancy.
Stockton has funded a 24 hour youth custody arrest referral service in the Police Custody Suite to ensure that those arrested are tested promptly and that appropriate refferals are made.
Closure Orders
We will use Closure Orders (commonly known as 'Crack House Closures') and accompany them with ASBOs. During 2005/08 16 Closure Orders were obtained. For five of these orders we also asked the Court and were given an ASBO to ban the individuals from entering the area where they previously lived, giving reidents some respite from the nuisance that they had been forced to live with.
Partnership Working
SSP and DAT work together closely. The DAT takes the lead on prevention and treatment and SSP leads on availability and supply.
The Drugs Intervention Project (DIP) and the Prolific and Priority Offender Project (PPO) Steering Group meet monthly to track the progress and success for their client groups. 41 people are identified as PPOs (March 2008) and of those the Volume Crime Coordinator obtained either an ASBO or a CRASBO on 10 to reduce the impact of their offending on the community.